Poisoning the Mind : Arsenic Contamination and Cognitive Achievement of Children

Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz ; Chaudhury, Nazmul

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABORTION;    ACCESS TO SCHOOLS;    ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN;    ADULTS;    AGED;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4510
RP-ID  :  WPS4510

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Bangladesh has experienced the largestmass poisoning of a population in history owing tocontamination of groundwater with naturally occurringinorganic arsenic. Continuous drinking of suchmetal-contaminated water is highly cancerous; prolongeddrinking of such water risks developing diseases in a spanof just 5-10 years.Arsenicosis-intake ofarsenic-contaminated drinking water-has implications forchildren's cognitive and psychological development.This study examines the effect of arsenicosis at school andat home on cognitive achievement of children in ruralBangladesh using recent nationally representative schoolsurvey data on students. Information on arsenic poisoning ofthe primary source of drinking water-tube wells-is used toascertain arsenic exposure. The findings show anunambiguously negative and statistically significantcorrelation between mathematics score and arsenicosis athome, net of exposure at school. Split-sample analysisreveals that the effect is only specific to boys; for girls,the effect is negative but insignificant. Similarcorrelations are found for cognitive and non-cognitiveoutcomes such as subjective well-being, that is, aself-reported measure of life satisfaction (also a directproxy for health status) of students and their performancein primary-standard mathematics. These correlations remainrobust to controlling for school-level exposure.