Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh?
Arsenic contamination in shallow groundwater aquifers remains a major barrier to providing access to safe drinking water in Bangladesh. Chronic exposure to arsenic has been shown to cause serious health impacts, including various cancers, skin lesi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/259811503579072530/Does-arsenic-contaminated-drinking-water-limit-early-childhood-development-in-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27979 |
| Summary: | Arsenic contamination in shallow
groundwater aquifers remains a major barrier to providing
access to safe drinking water in Bangladesh. Chronic
exposure to arsenic has been shown to cause serious health
impacts, including various cancers, skin lesions,
neurological damage, heart disease, and hypertension.
Numerous epidemiological studies have shown cognitive
impacts on memory, linguistic-abstraction, attention,
learning, and physical ability. The neurotoxic effects of
arsenic could be particularly harmful for children during
their critical growth periods and have impacts on early
childhood development. This study uses cross-sectional data
from the nationally representative 2012-13 Bangladesh
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey to investigate the effects
of arsenic contamination in drinking water on early
childhood development outcomes in a sample of around 7,500
children ages 3-5 years. Early childhood development is
measured in four skills domains: literacy-numeracy,
physical, social-emotional, and learning using the Early
Childhood Development Index. Arsenic contamination is
measured in source drinking water at the cluster-level.
After controlling for a range of demographic, social, and
economic characteristics of households, the results show
that arsenic contamination is significantly and negatively
associated with the overall Early Childhood Development
Index, on outcomes within the physical, social-emotional,
and learning skills domains. Further, there is a clear
dose-response relationship, where those children with
exposure to higher concentrations of arsenic have worse
developmental outcomes. |
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