Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Feb;115(2):285-9.
doi: 10.1289/ehp.9501. Epub 2006 Oct 18.

Water arsenic exposure and intellectual function in 6-year-old children in Araihazar, Bangladesh

Gail A Wasserman  1 , Xinhua Liu, Faruque Parvez, Habibul Ahsan, Pam Factor-Litvak, Jennie Kline, Alexander van Geen, Vesna Slavkovich, Nancy J Loiacono, Diane Levy, Zhongqi Cheng, Joseph H Graziano
Affiliations

Water arsenic exposure and intellectual function in 6-year-old children in Araihazar, Bangladesh

Gail A Wasserman et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Feb.

Abstract

Background: We recently reported results of a cross-sectional investigation of intellectual function in 10-year-olds in Bangladesh, who had been exposed to arsenic from drinking water in their home wells.

Objectives: We present results of a similar investigation of 301 randomly selected 6-year-olds whose parents participated in our ongoing prospective study of the health effects of As exposure in 12,000 residents of Araihazar, Bangladesh.

Methods: Water As and manganese concentrations of tube wells at each home were obtained by surveying all study region wells. Children and mothers were first visited at home, where the quality of home stimulation was measured, and then seen in our field clinic, where children received a medical examination wherein weight, height, and head circumference were assessed. We assessed children's intellectual function using subtests drawn from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, version III, by summing weighted items across domains to create Verbal, Performance, Processing Speed, and Full-Scale raw scores. Children provided urine specimens for measuring urinary As and were asked to provide blood samples for blood lead measurements.

Results: Exposure to As from drinking water was associated with reduced intellectual function before and after adjusting for water Mn, for blood lead levels, and for sociodemographic features known to contribute to intellectual function. With covariate adjustment, water As remained significantly negatively associated with both Performance and Processing Speed raw scores; associations were less strong than in our previously studied 10-year-olds.

Conclusion: This second cross-sectional study of As exposure expands our concerns about As neurotoxicity to a younger age group.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bartels M, Rietveld MJH, Van Baal GCM, Boomsma DI. Genetic and environmental influences on the development of intelligence. Behavior Genetics. 2002;32:237–249. - PubMed
    1. Bolla-Wilson K, Bleecker ML. Neuropsychological impairment following inorganic arsenic exposure. J Occup Med. 1987;29:500–503. - PubMed
    1. Bradley RH, Caldwell BM, Rock SL, Barnard KE, Gray C, Hammond MA, et al. Home environment and cognitive development in the first 3 years of life: a collaborative study involving six sites and three ethnic groups in North America. Dev Psychol. 1989;25:217–235.
    1. British Geological Survey, Bangladesh Department of Public Health Engineering 2001. Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in Bangladesh. Final Technical Report WC/00/19. Keyworth, UK:British Geological Survey.
    1. Calderon J, Navarro ME, Jimenez-Capdeville ME, Santos-Diaz MA, Golden A, Rodriguez-Leyva I, et al. Exposure to arsenic and lead and neuropsychological development in Mexican children. Environ Res. 2001;85:69–76. - PubMed

Publication types

-