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...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| 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 |
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okr-10986-279792021-06-08T14:42:48Z Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh? Haque, Sabrina S. Joseph, George Moqueet, Nazia ARSENIC DRINKING WATER EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT WATER QUALITY HEALTH 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. 2017-08-24T22:12:11Z 2017-08-24T22:12:11Z 2017-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/259811503579072530/Does-arsenic-contaminated-drinking-water-limit-early-childhood-development-in-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27979 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8172 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia Bangladesh |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
ARSENIC DRINKING WATER EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT WATER QUALITY HEALTH |
| spellingShingle |
ARSENIC DRINKING WATER EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT WATER QUALITY HEALTH Haque, Sabrina S. Joseph, George Moqueet, Nazia Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh? |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia Bangladesh |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8172 |
| description |
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. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Haque, Sabrina S. Joseph, George Moqueet, Nazia |
| author_facet |
Haque, Sabrina S. Joseph, George Moqueet, Nazia |
| author_sort |
Haque, Sabrina S. |
| title |
Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh? |
| title_short |
Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh? |
| title_full |
Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh? |
| title_fullStr |
Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Does Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Limit Early Childhood Development in Bangladesh? |
| title_sort |
does arsenic-contaminated drinking water limit early childhood development in bangladesh? |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/259811503579072530/Does-arsenic-contaminated-drinking-water-limit-early-childhood-development-in-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27979 |
| _version_ |
1764466282660364288 |