No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Valuing the Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in Bangladesh
Abstract
The use of groundwater in Bangladesh has in the past been promoted as a means of avoiding waterborne diseases associated with the consumption of untreated surface water. Unfortunately, the recent discovery of high levels of naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater in Bangladesh used for drinking purposes has led one international agency to describe the situation as a major public health emergency. Arsenic ingestion is associated with an elevated risk of various cancers. Epidemiological dose–response functions combined with survey estimates of arsenic concentrations in groundwater, and the number of households in Bangladesh relying on groundwater for drinking are used to derive an estimate of annual mortality and morbidity cases attributable to arsenic contamination. The estimated health impacts include 6500 fatal cancers and 2000 non-fatal cancers. Aggregate willingness to pay to avoid these health impacts is estimated to be $2.7 billion annually using purchasing power parity exchange rates. The methodology and results presented in this paper may have application to other countries.
... The behaviour, source, and occurrence of excess As (>10 μg/L) in drinking water and soil leads to various health problems (Kapaj et al., 2006;Smedley and Kinniburgh 2002;Smith et al., 2000). Besides health damage, excess consumption of As induced water also cause several socioeconomic issues, loss of productivity, work loss, the earning potential of the affected people, and the social exclusion problem (Maddison et al., 2005;Mahanta et al., 2016;Pitt et al., 2015;Roy, 2008;Thakur and Gupta 2019). High concentrations of As in water is a global concern; the previous research indicates the presence of As from Latin America (Bates et al., 2004;Bundschuh et al., 2021;Khan et al., 2020;Litter et al., 2019a;Marshall et al., 2007), Australia and New Zealand (Gu et al., 2020;Rahman et al., 2014;Ashmore et al., 2019), North America (Cheung et al., 2020;Heck et al., 2009;Nachman et al., 2017;Steinmaus et al., 2003;Wang and Mulligan 2006), Europe (Ahmad et al., 2020;European Food Safety Authority et al., 2021;Menon et al., 2020;Niksic et al., 2016). ...
... The earlier research studies the impact of As on human health due to excess As in drinking water (Argos et al., 2011;Chakraborti et al., 2009;Mazumder and Dasgupta 2011;Wu et al., 2020), issues of adaptation and mitigation (Hernandez et al., 2019;Khan and Yang 2014;MoWR 2010;Singh et al., 2018), population vulnerability and awareness (Barnwal et al., 2017;Singh and Vedwan 2015), As and food chain supply contamination (Bundschuh et al., 2012;Jackson et al., 2012;Santra et al., 2013;Singh and Ghosh 2011), and As and associated human risks on spatial maps (Navoni et al., 2014). The recent literature also argues on As and its associated impacts on health damage, socioeconomic cost, health cost, wage loss, and further decline in the efficiency and productivity of the affected persons Maddison et al., 2005;Mahanta et al., 2016;Pitt et al., 2015;Gupta, 2016, 2019;Roy 2008). Roy (2008) estimated that the annual welfare loss to the society in the North 24 Parganas of West Bengal, India due to excess As in water was INR 229 ($4.3) million. ...
... Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is the most used hypothetical behavioural method to estimate water pollution's economic and health costs through people's preferences and their influence on willingness-to-pay. To reduce the health impacts due to As induced drinking water, the annual WTP as a health cost in Bangladesh is assessed at the US $ 2.7 billion (Maddison et al., 2005). Ahmad et al. (2002) estimated monthly WTP for community water stand post and domestic connections in Bangladesh is BDT 51 and BDT 87 with additional capital costs of BDT 960 and BDT 1787, respectively. ...
The paper studies the impact of socioeconomic factors on households' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for drinking water in Bihar, India. The data were collected from 420 households through a primary survey from two arsenic affected districts. A linear regression model was used to examine the causal relationship among various socioeconomic factors and their influence on household decision to pay for water services. Around 84% of the surveyed respondents were willing to pay for better-quality water sources. Households value the good water quality, which resulted in good health, and, therefore, influenced the household decision to pay and opt for the services. Average As concentration level were found to be 130.4 μg/L and 115.2 μg/L in 2013 and 2019, respectively. The results found that socioeconomic factors that influence overall WTP are: households' income, age, education, awareness, arsenic concentration levels, and visit to the doctor. Education of the household's head and awareness are interlinked, and more education causes a shift in water sources from poor quality to safer one. WTP for better-quality drinking water were estimated through Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The annual WTP for the individual households and for the study area were estimated at INR 240 ($4.13) and INR 17.1 ($0.29) million, respectively. The inference of the results may be used in implementing of new policies for providing arsenic free drinking water in the affected areas.
... The evidence of fetal loss and infant death due to arsenic exposure during pregnancy has been documented by Rahman et al. (2007). Maddison et al. (2005) have estimated that the aggregate willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid the health impacts of arsenic in Bangladesh is $2.7 billion/year. Given the uncertainty involved in this specific water resource management case, the application of conventional cost-benefit analysis would be inadequate. ...
... This index could be optimized to identify applied in our analysis are listed in Table 2. These parameters are based on insights from published information on water resources in the Bangladesh region, our experience in water management in the region and the nature of hydrologic processes in relation to water supplies (Maddison et al., 2005, Mukherjee, 2005, Khan and Haque, 2010, Khan et al., 2014. The values of each parameter are discussed in detail in the following discussion. ...
With ignorance and potential surprise dominating decision making in water resources, a framework for dealing with such uncertainty is a critical need in hydrology. We operationalize the ‘potential surprise’ criterion proposed by Shackle, Vickers, and Katzner (SVK) to derive decision rules to manage water resources under uncertainty and ignorance. We apply this framework to managing water supply systems in Bangladesh that face severe, naturally occurring arsenic contamination. The uncertainty involved with arsenic in water supplies makes the application of conventional analysis of decision-making ineffective. Given the uncertainty and surprise involved in such cases, we find that optimal decisions tend to favor actions that avoid irreversible outcomes instead of conventional cost-effective actions. We observe that a diversification of the water supply system also emerges as a robust strategy to avert unintended outcomes of water contamination. Shallow wells had a slight higher optimal level (36%) compare to deep wells and surface treatment which had allocation levels of roughly 32% under each. The approach can be applied in a variety of other cases that involve decision making under uncertainty and surprise, a frequent situation in natural resources management.
... Arsenic is poisonous and a known carcinogen and ingestion of As is known to cause bladder, kidney, liver, lung, and skin cancers and other illnesses, and to increase mortality (Bates, et al., 1992; Argos et al., 2010). The estimated annual mortality in Bangladesh varies from 6500 from cancer alone (Maddison, et al., 2005) to about 9100 for all As-related deaths (Lokuge et al., 2004) with an annual estimated health impact cost of about $2.7 billion (Maddison, et al., 2005). These health care costs can be avoided through the identification and elimination of sources of exposure to high As. ...
... Arsenic is poisonous and a known carcinogen and ingestion of As is known to cause bladder, kidney, liver, lung, and skin cancers and other illnesses, and to increase mortality (Bates, et al., 1992; Argos et al., 2010). The estimated annual mortality in Bangladesh varies from 6500 from cancer alone (Maddison, et al., 2005) to about 9100 for all As-related deaths (Lokuge et al., 2004) with an annual estimated health impact cost of about $2.7 billion (Maddison, et al., 2005). These health care costs can be avoided through the identification and elimination of sources of exposure to high As. ...
Groundwater, the only source of potable water for millions of people in Bangladesh during dry season, is often contaminated with arsenic (As) above the allowable drinking water limit of 50 μg/L. Testing well water--with arsenic field test kits (FTKs)--and switching to safe-wells can effectively reduce exposure to As. FTKs are low cost, provide fast results, and are commercially available. There are between 10 and 11 million shallow tubewells in Bangladesh. Approximately, 5 million have been tested using FTKs. FTKs with color comparator rely on visual identification for generating qualitative results, which may not be highly reliable at the lower range because human eyes have low sensitivity in this range and sensitivity varies from person to person. The Wagtech Digital Arsenator does not suffer from this limitation and should, in theory, be able to generate quantitative, accurate, and reliable results. The instrument has a linear range of 0-100 μg/L, an accuracy of ± 20% for the 50 μg/L quality control standards, and a detection limit of about 4.4 μg/L. All Arsenators employed in this investigation also displayed high bias for 50 μg/L arsenic standard and were calibrated in order to improve measurement accuracy and reliability. Analyses of 179 raw and 92 treated well waters in the field and in two analytical laboratories were found to be highly correlated with the Spearman rank correlation coefficient of ≥ 0.800, indicating that Arsenator results are perhaps nearly as accurate and reliable as those from analytical laboratories.
... In the later, the total estimated impact of the human disease attributable to marine pollution by sewage is about three million DALY per year, with an estimated economic loss of some11.16 billion euros per year. In the developing world, health damages from drinking water contamination are examined by Dasgupta [46] and Maddison et al. [51] The former study estimates a health production function to derive the total cost of illness related to Diarrhoeal diseases in urban India,. Annual health costs are calculated and aggregated over the whole population are found to equal € 2,821,587. ...
... The economic burden per gastrointestinal illness was estimated at € 31.9, the burden per acute respiratory disease at € 66.94, the burden per ear ailment at € 32.95, and the burden per eye ailment at € 23.81. [51] Bangladesh Value of Statistical Life ...
In this article we critically review the economic literature on the effects of environmental changes on public health, in both the developed and the developing world. We first focus on the economic methodologies that are available for the evaluation of the effects (social costs and benefits) of environmental changes (degradation/preservation) on public health. Then, we explain how the monetary evaluations of these effects can feed back in the construction of economic policy for creating agent-specific incentives for more efficient public health management, which is also equitable and environmentally sustainable. Our exposition is accompanied by a synthesis of the available quantitative empirical results.
... It is now fairly well established that Arsenic happens to be the major contaminants in groundwater [1] and a number of countries face arsenic contamination and related health hazards23456789 including its reported carcinogenicity [9] The main source of arsenic exposure is through arsenic contaminated drinking water, food cooked in that water and milk of the animals reared on arsenic contaminated water. The long time use of arsenic contaminated water may cause cancer [9, 10]. ...
175 Groundwater samples collected across the district Tando Allahyar (TA) Sindh, Pakistan were analyzed for electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved salts (TDS), pH, cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and arsenic (As) levels. The arsenic presence varied from undetectable to 300 ppb, averaging overall 123 ppb. Sampling site S9 contained highest arsenic concentration in the sampling area with a mean of 170 ppb. An apparent correlation between public health of the area and arsenic levels in water seems to exist. Streaks of pigmentation were also observed randomly in some individuals. The concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Ni, Cu, Fe and Mn) varied in the ranges: 1-17, 12-95, 72-87, 14-1354 and 2-645ppb respectively. Only 9 of the total samples taken adhered to water quality parameters set by WHO and Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority for drinking water.
... Burt et al. (2017), Chatterjee et al. (2017), and Akeju, Oladehinde, & Abu Bakar (2018) documented that gender, volume of water consumption, level of education, income, household size, water quality, and water installation costs are factors determining WTP for clean water in Nigeria. Maddison, Catala-Luque, & Pearce (2005) and Whittington (2010) found that WTP for clean water is determined mainly by investment costs and the number of clean water supply. ...
This study aims to measure the households' Willingness to Pay (WTP) for clean water in Aceh Besar Regency and its determinants (i.e., income, education, family size, gender, and age). Of 16,164 households who have no access to clean water across seven sub-districts in the Aceh Besar region, 154 of them were selected as the sample of the study using a multi-stage random sampling technique. To measure the households' WTP for clean water and its determinants, this study uses the contingent valuation and multiple regression techniques. The study recorded that the average households' WTP for clean water was IDR444,123.38 per month. Based on multiple regression model, except for the variables of gender and age that have insignificant effect, the level of income, education, and family size were found to affect the households' WTP for clean water positively. These findings imply that to enhance households' WTP for clean water, the government should prioritize the rural-based economic, education, and family planning programs. Providing a more clean water distribution, followed by improving water and services quality at affordable prices would help the government to realize 100% access to clean water for all citizens in accordance with one of the SDGs' pillars.
... The study estimates the annual economic burden to society due to arsenic in water as INR 229 ($4.3) million in north 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. Maddison et al. (2005) estimated annual aggregate willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid arsenic-induced health costs as US$ (PPP) 2.7 billion in Bangladesh, while the cost of illness including mitigation expenses, was estimated as US$ 51 per household a year in Bangladesh (Haque et al. 2011). Khan et al. (2014) estimated households in Bangladesh spend nearly US$ 18 to deal with arsenic-related health problems per year. ...
This paper estimates the health damages due to arsenicosis among people residing in two districts of Bihar, India. A primary survey of 388 households’ comprises 3469 individuals from two arsenic-contaminated districts namely Patna and Bhojpur from Bihar was conducted to collect the data. Arsenic field test kits was used to test the arsenic level in drinking water of the sample households. The water test results indicate that 18.3% of the sample contained 50 ppb of arsenic, and 5.12% of the sample contained the arsenic between 300 and 500 ppb. Water source, doctor visits, work loss, and arsenic concentration levels are significant and positively related to arsenicosis, and awareness is significant but negatively related to arsenicosis. The incidence rate of arsenicosis was found to be more among females than males and children. Per-capita income, sanitation, awareness, and depth of water sources are significant and positively related to defensive activities, i.e., water purification. The annual wage loss, cost of treatment, and cost of illness for sample households are estimated as INR 2437.92 ($45.83), INR 5942.40 ($111.72) and INR 8380.32 ($157.55), respectively. The annual cost of illness for the society is estimated as INR 265.97 million ($5 million). Finally, the paper suggests policy implications of providing safe drinking water in the arsenic-affected areas in the State of Bihar, India, which can help reduce arsenicosis in sustainable manner, improve well-being and potential productivity.
... Various studies examined the relationship between arsenic concentration in drinking water and its associated impact on human health (Canter 1997;Smith et al. 2000;Rahman et al. 2006;Santra et al. 2013). The literature mainly discussed on issues such as technical (Smedley and Kinniburgh 2002;Saha et al. 2007;Amanambu and Egbinola 2015), mitigation and adaptation issues (MoWR 2010b; Gani and Scrimgeour 2014;MoWR 2015;Singh et al. 2016Singh et al. b, 2017Singh et al. , 2018, food chain contamination Bhattacharya et al. 2012;Huq et al. 2006;Santra et al. 2013;Jackson et al. 2012), health and economic cost (Ahmad et al. 2005;Pitt et al. 2015;Roy 2008;Maddison et al. 2005;Mahanta et al. 2016), and health impacts (Smith et al. 2000;Argos et al. 2011;James et al. 2015;Chakraborti et al. 2016aChakraborti et al. , 2017Chakraborti et al. , 2018. ...
The current paper estimates the arsenic-contaminated drinking water and its associated effects on human health. The result is based on a primary survey of 173 households from five arsenic contaminated villages from Shahpur block in the Bhojpur district from Bihar state, India. A field test kit was used to test the concentration levels of arsenic in households’ drinking water. The results of the water tests revealed that more than 60% of the drinking water has excess arsenic concentration levels (more than 0.01 mg/L of WHO standards). The incidence rate due to arsenicosis (arsenic poisoning) was more among females than males. From the survey, it was also found that skin-lesions and other health issues due to arsenic induced-problems were more acute among children and women compared to men. More than half of the respondents (51%) did not hear about arsenic poisoning, and around 13.29% of the surveyed respondents know the serious health issues due to arsenic-contaminated drinking water.
... Arsenic accumulates in crops grown in contaminated agriculture field and finally enters into the food chain affecting human health and livestock. The presence of As in food causes several health and environment related problems (BGS and DPHE, 2001;Huq et al., 2006;Ratnaike, 2006;Smedley and Kinniburgh, 2002;Wei et al., 2013;Wiwanitkit, 2015;Wu et al., 2015;Yadav et al., 2014;Yadav et al., 2012). Geological and biological activities are largely influenced by the availability of the As and become the deciding factors for the severity of toxicity. ...
Rhizospheric and plant root associated microbes generally play a protective role against arsenic toxicity in rhizosphere. Rhizospheric microbial interaction influences arsenic (As) detoxification/mobilization into crop plants and its level of toxicity and burden. In the present investigation, we have reported a rhizospheric fungi Aspergillus flavus from an As contaminated rice field, which has capability to grow at high As concentration and convert soluble As into As particles. These As particles showed a reduced toxicity to soil dwelling bacteria, fungi, plant and slime mold. It does not disrupt membrane potential, inner/outer membrane integrity and survival of the free N 2 fixating bacteria. In arbuscular mycorrhiza like endophytic fungi Piriformospora indica, these As particles does not influence mycelial growth and plant beneficial parameters such as phosphate solubilizing enzyme rAPase secretion and plant root colonization. Similarly, it does not affect plant growth and chlorophyll content negatively in rice plant. However, these As particles showed a poor absorption and mobilization in plant. These As particle also does not affect attachment process and survival of amoeboid cells in slime mold, Dictyostelium discoideum. This study suggests that the process of conversion of physical and chemical properties of arsenic during transformation, decides the toxicity of arsenic particles in the rhizospheric environment. This phenomenon is of environmental significance, not only in reducing arsenic toxicity but also in the survival of healthy living organism in arsenic-contaminated rhizospheric environment.
... Only a few studies estimated the households' health cost and willingness to pay (WTP) for arsenic-free, safe drinking water in Bangladesh. A study by Maddison et al. (2005) shows the annual estimated health cost of arsenic contamination in tube-well water is USD 2.7 billion, while some other studies found households spend about 5-10% of their disposable income per year for mitigating purposes, depending on the severity of arsenic contamination (Khan et al. 2014a, b, c;Khan and Haque 2010;Akter 2008), whereas Ahmad et al. (2005) suggest that households' average WTP is too low to develop arsenic-free water supply without heavy government subsidy. Therefore, sourcing safe drinking water with/without government subsidy is an issue of sustainable management of water investments and interventions in Bangladesh. ...
This study estimates health cost of salinity contamination in drinking water in the severe salinity affected three south-western districts of Bangladesh. We collected information on self-reported health status, household characteristics, and laboratory-tested salinity concentration in drinking water from randomly selected 266 households. Our findings show that an increase in the concentration of 100 mg sodium chloride per litre in the drinking water raises annual health cost BDT 262 (USD 3.28) per household, all other things being equal. For average salinity concentration (868.26 mg L⁻¹), we computed gross annual health cost per household BDT 2270 (USD 28.38). Limiting salt concentration at the safe level could save approximately BDT 1617 (USD 20) per household or BDT 170 (USD 2.12) million in aggregate annually, which accounts for almost 1% of their disposable income. A benefit–cost analysis shows that net present value of benefits from a 10-year project for supplying safe drinking water to the entire population is around USD 7.33 million, and thus, the study indicates financial viability of alternative supply system (pond sand filtering) to the concerned authorities.
... Millions of groundwater wells were installed in Bangladesh from the 1970s onward [8], for the most part with funds from international agencies, with the goal of ending reliance on unsanitary surface water for drinking [26]. That a million or more of these wells were arsenic contaminated was long unknown [2][3][4]27]. ...
Background
Thousands of groundwater tube wells serving millions of Bangladeshis are arsenic contaminated. This study investigates the effect of these wells on the education attainment and school attendance of youths who rely on those wells for drinking water.
Methods
The analysis combines data from the 2006 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2006 MICS) and the National Hydrochemical Survey (NHS) of Bangladeshi tube wells? contamination conducted between 1998 and 2000. The study uses multiple regression analysis to estimate the differences in education attainment and school attendance among the following: (i) youths who live where tube wells are safe, (ii) youths who live where tube wells are unsafe but who report drinking from an arsenic-free source, and (iii) youths who live where tube wells are unsafe but who do not report drinking from an arsenic-free source.
Results
Controlling for other determinants of education attainment and school attendance, young Bangladeshi males who live where tube wells are unsafe (by Bangladeshis standards) but who report drinking from arsenic-free sources are found to have the same education attainment (among 19- to 21-year-olds) and school attendance (among 6- to 10-year-olds), on average, as corresponding young Bangladeshi males who live where wells are safe. But young Bangladeshi males who live where tube wells are unsafe and who do not report drinking from an arsenic-free source attain, on average, a half-year less education (among 19- to 21-year-olds) and attend school, on average, five to seven fewer days a year (among 6- to 10-year-olds) than do other Bagladeshi males of those ages. The estimated effects for females are of the same sign but much smaller in magnitude.
Conclusion
Bangladeshi public health measures to shift drinking from unsafe to safe wells not only advance good health but also increase males? education attainment.
... Millions of groundwater wells were installed in Bangladesh from the 1970s onward [8], for the most part with funds from international agencies, with the goal of ending reliance on unsanitary surface water for drinking [26]. That a million or more of these wells were arsenic contaminated was long unknown [2][3][4]27]. ...
A third of Bangladeshi children live in communities with unsafe, arsenic contaminated water. Fifty-seven percent of children in such communities are reported to drink from arsenic free sources, partly as a result of public health programs that identify contaminated wells and alert people to the risks of drinking from contaminated wells. Fixed-effects regressions reveal that the forty-three percent of boys who grow up in such communities and who are not reported to drink arsenic-free water, lose a half year of schooling to arsenic’s effects. Boys living in communities with unsafe water but reported to drink from arsenic-free sources do not suffer this adverse educational consequence. Estimated negative effects for girls are much smaller and statistically insignificant, which accords with others’ similar findings about arsenic’s differential impacts on cognitive development for Bangladeshi boys and girls. Public health measures that induce people to shift away from arsenic-contaminated wells not only improve health, but also build human capital.
... Many studies have examined the WTP for reducing different types of risk, including air pollution (Roman et al. 2012), road safety (Hakes and Viscusi 2007) and accidents in the workplace (Tsai et al. 2011). The contributions to drinking water quality have been more limited, and have served to estimate the economic value of the health benefits derived from risk reductions associated with improving drinking water quality (Adamowick et al. 2011;Maddison et al. 2005). ...
The Silences of the Archives, the Reknown of the Story.
The Martin Guerre affair has been told many times since Jean de Coras and Guillaume Lesueur published their stories in 1561. It is in many ways a perfect intrigue with uncanny resemblance, persuasive deception and a surprizing end when the two Martin stood face to face, memory to memory, before captivated judges and a guilty feeling Bertrande de Rols. The historian wanted to go beyond the known story in order to discover the world of the heroes. This research led to disappointments and surprizes as documents were discovered concerning the environment of Artigat’s inhabitants and bearing directly on the main characters thanks to notarial contracts. Along the way, study of the works of Coras and Lesueur took a new direction. Coming back to the affair a quarter century later did not result in finding new documents (some are perhaps still buried in Spanish archives), but by going back over her tracks, the historian could only be struck by the silences of the archives that refuse to reveal their secrets and, at the same time, by the possible openings they suggest, by the intuition that almost invisible threads link here and there characters and events.
... Bangladesh has been suggested to be one of the counties in the largest number of patients with arsenicosis caused by arsenic-polluted well drinking water [3]. In fact, more than 25 million patients with arsenicosis have been reported in Bangladesh [4,5]. More than 10 million patients with arsenicosis in Vietnam have also been reported [6]. ...
Health risk for well drinking water is a worldwide problem. Our recent studies showed increased toxicity by exposure to barium alone (≤700 µg/L) and coexposure to barium (137 µg/L) and arsenic (225 µg/L). The present edition of WHO health-based guidelines for drinking water revised in 2011 has maintained the values of arsenic (10 µg/L) and barium (700 µg/L), but not elements such as manganese, iron and zinc. Nevertheless, there have been very few studies on barium in drinking water and human samples. This study showed significant correlations between levels of arsenic and barium, but not its homologous elements (magnesium, calcium and strontium), in urine, toenail and hair samples obtained from residents of Jessore, Bangladesh. Significant correlation between levels of arsenic and barium in well drinking water and levels in human urine, toenail and hair samples were also observed. Based on these results, a high-performance and low-cost adsorbent composed of a hydrotalcite-like compound for barium and arsenic was developed. The adsorbent reduced levels of barium and arsenic from well water in Bangladesh and Vietnam to <7 µg/L within 1 min. Thus, we have showed levels of arsenic and barium in humans and propose a novel remediation system.
... An estimated 270 Upazilas (sub-districts) out of 465 have been affected with significantly high concentrations of As (BGS and DPHE, 2001;Ahmed et al., 2004;BAMWSP, 2005). An estimated 35 million people are exposed to arsenic concentrations in tubewell water above the Bangladesh drinking water standard of 50 lg L À1 and 57 million people are above the WHO guideline value of 10 lg L À1 (BGS and DPHE, 2001;Gaus et al., 2003;Maddison et al., 2005). It has been demonstrated that As is a potent carcinogen (Morton et al., 1976;Duker et al., 2004); close to 40,000 cases of arsenicosis have been detected in a nationwide survey in Bangladesh (BAMWSP, 2005;UNICEF, 2010), and public health experts believe there will be more than 2.5 million cases in the next 50 years (Russell, 2006). ...
With increasing use of arsenic (As) removal units for treatment of As-contaminated groundwater in rural Bangladesh, concerns have been raised regarding safe disposal of the As-rich wastes from such units and possible contamination of the environment. In the absence of any clear guideline for safe disposal of wastes generated from As removal units, the wastes are usually disposed of in the open environment, often on cow dung beds in the backyard. Short term (up to 6. weeks) batch experiments performed in this study suggest that bio-chemical (e.g., bio-methylation) processes in the presence of only fresh cow dung may lead to a significant removal of As, both from aqueous solution and As-rich treatment wastes. Arsenic removal appears to increase with decreasing As to cow dung weight ratio. This study also suggests that arsenate transforms to arsenite before removal from aqueous As solution in the presence of cow dung. In most cases majority of As removal takes place during first few days. Removal of As under cap-open (to facilitate aerobic condition) and cap-closed conditions (to facilitate aerobic condition) were found to be similar. No significant variation was observed in the removal As from aqueous solution and from treatment wastes (As bound to iron solids). This study concludes that disposal of As-rich treatment wastes to cow dung pits could be an effective option of As sludge disposal and management in rural areas of Bangladesh.
... It is important that the hypothetical market scenarios used in CV studies of environmental goods have a strong scientific underpinning and be credible and acceptable to respondents. In some studies, dose response relationships have been used to define valuation scenarios (Pope et al., 2002;Maddison et al., 2005;Johnson et al., 2008), but a lack of epidemiological evidence at Loch Leven meant the construc tion of such a relationship for cyanotoxins was not currently feasible. Because we were dealing predominantly with morbidity risks, rather than mortality, the widely used Value of a Statistic Life approach was not suited to our empirical setting. ...
Mass populations of toxin-producing cyanobacteria are an increasingly common occurrence in inland and coastal waters used for recreational purposes. These mass populations pose serious risks to human and animal health and impose potentially significant economic costs on society. In this study, we used contingent valuation (CV) methods to elicit public willingness to pay (WTP) for reductions in the morbidity risks posed by blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria in Loch Leven, Scotland. We found that 55% of respondents (68% excluding protest voters) were willing to pay for a reduction in the number of days per year (from 90, to either 45 or 0 days) that cyanobacteria pose a risk to human health at Loch Leven. The mean WTP for a risk reduction was UK£9.99-12.23/household/year estimated using a logistic spike model. In addition, using the spike model and a simultaneous equations model to control for endogeneity bias, we found the respondents' WTP was strongly dependent on socio-demographic characteristics, economic status and usage of the waterbody, but also individual-specific attitudes and perceptions towards health risks. This study demonstrates that anticipated health risk reductions are an important nonmarket benefit of improving water quality in recreational waters and should be accounted for in future cost-benefit analyses such as those being undertaken under the auspices of the European Union's Water Framework Directive, but also that such values depend on subjective perceptions of water-related health risks and general attitudes towards the environment.
... Although >20 countries have been affected by arsenic contamination of drinking water, the situation is perhaps the most devastating in Bangladesh because of the number of affected people [2]. Nationwide, 6,528 people will die from cancer every year and a total of 326,400 people in a period of 50 years and around 2.5 million people will develop keratoses, hyperpigmentation, cough, chest sounds, breathlessness, weakness glucosuria and high blood pressure over that period [3]. Systematic survey throughout the country by the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) have estimated that nearly 21 million people of about 47 districts are drinking arsenic contaminated ground water [4] which is well above the standard limit of 0.05 mg/L of Bangladesh (the WHO guide line value is 0.01 mg/L [5]). ...
Adverse human health effects ranging from skin lesions to internal cancers as well as widespread social and psychological problems caused by arsenic contaminated drinking water in Bangladesh may be the biggest arsenic calamity in the world. From an arsenicosis patients survey, this paper empirically analyzes the determinants of arsenicosis patients' perception about chronic arsenic poisoning and social and psychological implications of arsenicosis. In this study, cross-sectional data were collected from the Matlab and Hajiganj Upzillas of Chandpur district which are known to be highly contaminated with arsenic in their underground water. Respondents informed that arsenic poisoning causes a wide range of social and psychological problems. Female respondents were less vulnerable in the case of social problems (p < 0.01) and more vulnerable for the psychological problems (p < 0.001) of arsenicosis than male respondents. The results based on logit analysis showed that education (p < 0.01) and household income (p < 0.05) were significantly correlated to respondents' perception about arsenicosis. The arsenicosis related special program (s) needs a clear understanding of people's perception about arsenic exposure for abating the health burden as well as social and psychological problems.
In numerous locations worldwide, groundwater contains inorganic fluoride (F−).
In this paper it is critically review the economic literature on the effects of environmental changes on public health ,in both the developed and the developing world. The first focus on the economic methodologies that are available for the evaluation of the effects of environmental changes on public health .Then it explain how the monetary valuations of these effects can feed back in the construction of economic policy for creating agent specific incentives for more efficient public management, which is also equitable and environmentally sustainable. Every minute, five children in developing countries die from malaria or diarrhea. Every hour, 100 children die as a result of exposure to indoor smoke from solid fuels. Every day, nearly 1,800 people in developing cities die as a result of exposure to urban air pollution. Every month, nearly 19,000 people in developing countries die from unintentional poisonings.
This study assesses the depth of tubewell and the associated concentration of arsenic (As) in drinking water within the arsenic-affected regions in Bihar, India. A survey of 935 tubewell from two As-contaminated blocks in Bihar were conducted to collect and test the water samples. The results demonstrate that As concentration is mainly found in shallow tubewells (14–49 m deep), which is the main source of drinking water in the region in deep tubewells (>49 m deep), have arsenic concentration < 50 μg/L. The analytical results by field test kits (FTK) revealed that the levels of As in around 61% of the drinking water sources were above 10 μg/L, 20.8% samples contained arsenic 51-<100 μg/L, 16.9% contained 101-<300 μg/L, and 5.03% of the samples contained arsenic between 300 and 500 μg/L. Iron test results showed that around 74.4% of the samples contained iron at more than the prescribed 500 μg/L level of WHO. The study also revealed a general lack of awareness about the drinking water contamination and its associated health impacts. Therefore, awareness through various channels among the affected stakeholders will be helpful for the households to change their water sources (Saha et al., 2018, 2019).
The Middle Ganga Plain (MGP) is the second largest arsenic (As) contaminated groundwater zone in south-east Asia after the Bengal Delta Plain. About 90% of the total population in the MGP depends on shallow aquifer based groundwater supply for their drinking and irrigation need. More than ten million people in the alluvial belt of MGP are exposed to elevated levels of As (more than the limit set by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) 2012 drinking limit of 50 μgL⁻¹) in their drinking water. In the light of synthesis of groundwater As distribution in MGP, the availability of safe sources of water for drinking have been analyzed. The current study delineates two aquifer systems in MGP through the study of borehole lithologs (n = 27). The first aquifer system persists from below the top aquitard to up to ~87–126 m below ground level (bgl), while the second aquifer system starts at various depths ranging from ~116 to 139 m bgl and continues up to the depth of ~250 m bgl. Suitability of the deeper (second) aquifer system for As free drinking water has been assessed through analysis of pumping test data. The Newer Alluvium comprising the top aquitard and the upper 15–20 m slice of the first aquifer system hosts the contaminated aquifers for the depth of ~50 m below ground surface. The Pleistocene aquifers (the bottom three-fourth part of the first aquifer system and the entire second aquifer system) are low in groundwater As. The second aquifer system, existing in confined condition, can be used for community water supply through the installation of deep tube wells with a regulated draft. Community hand pumps in the depth range of 5–15 m below ground can be constructed in the sandy areas in the floodplain for drinking need of the local people. Large diameter dug wells can also be constructed to tap the replenished dynamic groundwater, which normally remains oxic and low in As.
More than 10 million people residing in 13 districts of the state of Bihar are facing the acute problem of arsenic contamination in drinking water. The objective of this paper is to quantify arsenic in drinking water, and to understand the associated health problems, health costs and socio-economic issues in the region. In the study, a field test kit was used to test the arsenic concentration in drinking water collected from 276 households. It was revealed that 63% of the households’ drinking water contained arsenic in the excess of 10 ppb, 19.6% had arsenic concentration between 100 and <300 ppb, and 5% of the water samples contained arsenic between 300 and 500 ppb. Also, incidences of illness were found to be more frequent among children and females than among males. Monthly household cost and monthly per capita costs for the affected households and for all the surveyed households were found to be US$ 33.8 and US$ 3.9, and US$ 11.6 and US$ 1.3, respectively. The excess concentration of arsenic in drinking water over prolonged periods is likely to cause primary, secondary and tertiary health effects, and is a serious cause of concern.
Microbes may play a key role in the mobilization of arsenic present in elevated concentrations within the aquifers extensively exploited for irrigation and drinking water in West Bengal, Bangladesh, and in other regions of SouthEast Asia. Microcosm experiments using Cambodian sediments (which are also representative of other similar reducing aquifers containing arsenic-rich waters) show that arsenic release and iron reduction are microbially mediated and demonstrate that the type of organic matter present, not necessarily the total abundance of organic matter, is important in controlling the rate and magnitude of microbially mediated arsenic release from these aquifer sediments. The possible role of naturally occurring petroleum in stimulating this process is also demonstrated. In addition to acting as an electron donor, certain types of organic matter may accelerate arsenic release by acting as an electron shuttle, indicating a dual role for organic matter in the process. The results also suggest that the fine-grained sediment regions of these aquifers are particularly vulnerable to accelerated arsenic release following the introduction of labile organic carbon.
The aim of this study is to assess and report trace metal contamination of water samples of Balu River, collected from four stations which was sampled every three months covering the upstream and downstream sites of major industrial area of Tajgaon of Dhaka city. The dissolve concentration Iron, Lead, Cadmium, Manganese, Cobalt, Nickel, Chromium, Zinc, Copper of water samples was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry and were found to range from 1.79 to 50.15 mg/L, <17.96 to 28.25 μg/L, <3.00 to 3.30 μg/L, 28.28 to 730.79 μg/L, <4.05 to 53.92 μg/L, <10.66 to 19.07 μg/L, <4.05 to 8.44 μg/L, 8.39 to 76.86 μg/L, and 3.81 to 19.99 μg/L. The observed concentrations of the metals varied between sampling sites and also in different season. Metal concentration was higher in the dry (March) than rainy season in most cases. The pollution level is within the limit of Bangladesh standard and below the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization standard except Iron. From this study, it is clear that the water of this river is not an immediate threat to ecosystem but most of the parameters are higher than other rivers of Bangladesh and in future may cause a threat to ecosystem.
Arsenic Pollution summarizes the most current research on the distribution and causes of arsenic pollution, its impact on health and agriculture, and solutions by way of water supply, treatment, and water resource management. Provides the first global and interdisciplinary account of arsenic pollution occurrences. Integrates geochemistry, hydrology, agriculture, and water supply and treatment for the first time. Options are highlighted for developing alternative water sources and methods for arsenic testing and removal. Appeals to specialists in one discipline seeking an overview of the work being done in other disciplines.
This study was performed based on local perception on arsenic toxicity with respect to socioeconomic status at the Achintanagar village in the southwestern part of Bangladesh. The questionnaire was distributed randomly at the local scale in the study area. It was found that the respondents are highly contaminated with arsenic and most of them have suffered from economic crisis and ignorance. Arsenic contamination and food poisoning concept has direct bearing on educational level which is emphasized on socioeconomic status. Correlation coefficient matrix had revealed that the whole aspects of socioeconomic component negatively correlated with arsenic toxicity for group one and two. Female participant were observed to be more unconscious than male respondents on food contamination through arsenic accumulation. Results showed that, most of the respondents continued to eat and practiced the sale of contaminated food in the community. It was observed that this practice is highly contagious for human and environmental health.
This chapter is a review of the aqueous speciation and sorption behavor of arsenic in natural environments.
Groundwater is critical to both drinking and irrigation water supplies in Bangladesh. Today, approximately 97% of all drinking water supplies comes from groundwater via hand-operated tubewells tapping from primarily the shallow (<150 m below ground level) groundwater. Groundwater-fed irrigation has been sustaining the dry-season rice (Boro) cultivation in Bangladesh since the 1970s that has made the country nearly self-sufficient in food grains. Currently, the shallow groundwater is facing two major challenges: (1) widespread contamination by elevated (exceeding the WHO Standard of 10 µg/L) arsenic (As) concentrations, and (2) rapid decline in groundwater storage in major cities (e.g., Dhaka) and intensely irrigated areas (e.g., Barind Tract region in northwestern Bangladesh). Nearly 50 million people in Bangladesh are currently threatened by chronic consumption of elevated As concentrations. Continuous decline in shallow groundwater levels is currently leading towards an unsustainable condition for low-cost pumping technologies (e.g., shallow irrigation wells) and threatening food security. As a practical and economic mitigation response to the on-going As crisis, the deep (>150 m bgl) groundwater resource, which is almost uniformly free of As is currently being utilized in many parts of Bangladesh. However, very little is known about deep groundwater and its interactions with shallow groundwater. This study presents a critical review of groundwater resources in Bangladesh highlighting the areas where this vital resource is facing challenges and how these difficulties can be overcome to sustain the continuing economic growth and social development.
This study examines willingness to pay (WTP) in Bangladesh for arsenic (As) safe drinking water across different As-risk zones, applying a double bound discrete choice value elicitation approach. The study aims to provide a robust estimate of the benefits of As safe drinking water supply, which is compared to the results from a similar study published almost 10 years ago using a single bound estimation procedure. Tests show that the double bound valuation design does not suffer from anchoring or incentive incompatibility effects. Health risk awareness levels are high and households are willing to pay on average about 5 percent of their disposable average annual household income for As safe drinking water. Important factors influencing WTP include the bid amount to construct communal deep tubewell for As safe water supply, the risk zone where respondents live, household income, water consumption, awareness of water source contamination, whether household members are affected by As contamination, and whether they already take mitigation measures.
Electricity production causes unintended impacts. Their exclusion by the market leads to suboptimal resource allocations. Monetizing and internalizing of external costs, though challenging and debatable, leads to a better allocation of economic resources and welfare. In this paper, a life-cycle analysis (LCA) on the production of electricity from conventional coal based electricity generation system has been performed in order to examine the environmental impacts of coal based electricity generating systems in the twin-city of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in western India. By using dose–response functions, we make an attempt to estimate the damages to human health, crops, and building materials resulting from the operation of coal power plants and its associated mines. Further, we use geographic information system to account for spatially dependent data. Finally, monetary values have been assigned to estimate the damage to human health, crops and building materials. This study reveals that the health as well as on non-health impacts of air pollution resulting from coal based electricity generation may not be ignored both in absolute as well as economic value terms.
Widespread,arsenic contamination,of groundwater,in Bangladesh places the health of millions of Bangladeshis in jeopardy. Ninety-five percent of the population of Bangladesh,is estimated to rely on groundwater for drinking purposes and naturally occurring arsenic contaminates over a fourth of the groundwater,in Bangladesh. Mitigation and avoidance,of arsenic contaminated water is a complex,and expensive prospect for Bangladeshi villagers. Water sources without high arsenic levels are scarce, taking a practical toll on a person’s time available for work and other activities when,they have to seek safe water to drink. Research suggests that children are particularly susceptible to chronic arsenic exposure. Since children live with parents who are the primary decision makers for sustenance, a model of decision-making linking parent health and child health outcomes is used to frame the relative valuation of child and parent health using an averting behavior model. Because the decision maker does not have deterministic knowledge,of whether they or their children will be ill, drinking water choices are framed in a stochastic framework. Relative valuation of child health over own health reveal that even with heavy resource constraints, parents value their child’s health more,than twice as much,as their own,health. The results can help evaluate whether public health mitigation policies to reduce exposure to arsenic in drinking water are working, and examine whether,factors such as child health and time required for remediation have an effect on mitigation measures. ,1
This paper examines the impact of arsenic contamination of groundwater on sale prices of residential properties and bare land transactions in two Maine towns, Buxton and Hollis, that rely on private wells to supply their drinking water. Prompted by tests of well water by the state of Maine, media attention focused on the communities in 1993 and 1994 when 14% of private wells were found to have arsenic concentrations exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard of 0.05 mg/L. Households could mitigate the serious health risks associated with arsenic ingestion by purchasing bottled water or by installing a reverse osmosis home treatment system. Our results indicate that the initial arsenic finding in 1993 led to significant, but temporary, 2 year decreases in property prices. This is a much shorter effect on prices than has been observed for Superfund sites, where prices can be depressed for a decade. These results suggest that a property-specific contamination incident that is treatable may not have a long-lasting effect on sale prices, but further research is needed to confirm if the dissipation of the price effect was actually due to the installation of in-home water treatment systems or due to the dissipation of perceived risk once the media coverage stopped.
There are several factors that influence the mobility of dissolved arsenic oxyanions in the environment. The mobility of arsenate as H3AsO4 (As(V)) and arsenite as H3AsO3 (As(III)) through porous media is controlled primarily by sorption reactions with metal hydroxides. The kinetics of As(V) and As(III) sorption onto a sand of heterogeneous metal oxide composition has been studied at a single pH value and the results are presented here. The effect of NOM on arsenic sorption by metal oxides has been studied as well as the association of As(V) with NOM as a function of calcium concentration. Attenuated Total Reflectance FTIR (ATR-FTIR) was used to study NOM sorption by hematite over a pH range of 5-8 in the presence of As(V). These experiments were performed as part of a step-wise approach toward describing the behavior of As(V) and As(III) in a natural environment. The observed rate of As(V) sorption by the sand is slightly faster than the rate of As(III) sorption and both systems reached equilibrium within 4 hours. The presence of natural organic matter (NOM) significantly decreased the extent of arsenic sorption onto metal oxides but the actual mechanism of the inhibition is not well understood. ATR-FTIR shows that certain functional groups of the
A simple and low-cost household-based arsenic (As) removal filter (ARE) was tested under actual field conditions in a rural area of Bangladesh. The ARF consisted of a ceramic filter made of clay soil and rice bran collected on-site, iron netting and iron bacterial sludge liquor. Fifteen ARFs (14 shallow and one deep tubewells) were installed in three villages (five in each area) in the Khulna region (southwestern region of Bangladesh), and their performance was evaluated. More than 60% of ARFs produced effluent with As <50 mu g/L (Bangladesh standard level). The effects of Fe and P on As removal were the same as in laboratory experiments. X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) analysis showed the adsorption of primarily As(V), with lesser amounts of As(III). Continuous As removal performance was observed over 1 year of ARF use. By introducing a double ARF system, the As removal was significantly enhanced for the region with high As contamination levels. The ARF manufacturing cost was estimated to be US$4-5, which is low and affordable to the rural households of Bangladesh. The ARF, made of locally available materials, had a low cost and minimal maintenance and showed high user acceptance, satisfaction and sustained use.
Microbes may play a key role in the mobilization of arsenic present in elevated concentrations within the aquifers extensively exploited for irrigation and drinking water in West Bengal, Bangladesh, and in other regions of South-East Asia. Microcosm experiments using Cambodian sediments (which are also representative of other similar reducing aquifers containing arsenic-rich waters) show that arsenic release and iron reduction are microbially mediated and demonstrate that the type of organic matter present, not necessarily the total abundance of organic matter, is important in controlling the rate and magnitude of microbially mediated arsenic release from these aquifer sediments. The possible role of naturally occurring petroleum in stimulating this process is also demonstrated. In addition to acting as an electron donor, certain types of organic matter may accelerate arsenic release by acting as an electron shuttle, indicating a dual role for organic matter in the process. The results also suggest that the fine-grained sediment regions of these aquifers are particularly vulnerable to accelerated arsenic release following the introduction of labile organic carbon.
The contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh by arsenic is a widespread and serious environmental problem, affecting mainly
the rural population who rely extensively on groundwater for drinking and cooking. The study conducted survey work in a few
affected villages of the Northwest region in Bangladesh. The household survey gathered information on the respondents (affected
by arsenic) water usage and sources, knowledge of the arsenic problem, changes in the source of water for drinking and cooking,
arsenic mitigation technologies and socio-economic information on the households. The survey work shows that percentage of
male patient is higher than female patient among the same level of household income in each study villages. Prevalence of
arsenicosis is more among poorer sections and it is directly related to the poverty situation of the community. People know
more about the health problems caused by arsenicosis but lack knowledge about mitigation aspects. In one of the study areas,
every year an extra 4% tubewell is getting contaminated by arsenic. Arsenic contamination in groundwater also affects the
environment and the ecology negatively. The NGOs have been found contributing to a knowledge creation process in the village
community as the villagers are showing marked behavioral changes in water-use practice.
Naturally occurring As found in groundwaters has been identified to be a problem in at least 10 provinces of Cambodia with Kandal being one of the most heavily impacted. Estimates, using groundwater quality and population data for Kandal Province of Cambodia, suggest that over 100,000 people are at high risk of chronic As exposure. Levels in some areas approach 3500 μg/L, against the Cambodian Standard of 50 μg/L. Considerable work remains to adequately characterize the extent of As hazard and its possible health effects in Cambodia and the region. It is likely that additional populations will develop health problems attributed to As, of particular concern is arsenicosis. The symptoms of arsenicosis have been generally assumed to develop after 8–10 years of consumption of water with elevated As levels, however, new cases discovered in Cambodia have been identified with exposure times as short as 3 years. The rapid onset of arsenicosis may be attributed to contributing risk factors related to socioeconomic status, including malnutrition. It is thus imperative to develop strategies to rapidly identify possible regions of enrichment, to minimize exposure to As-rich waters, and to educate affected populations. To date the response to the As hazard has been led by the Ministry of Rural Development in cooperation with international organizations and NGOs, to identify at risk areas, and educate communities of the risk of As-rich water. However better coordination between government bodies, NGOs and donor agencies active in the field of water supply and treatment is essential to minimize future As exposure.
Hip arthroplasty is one of the most commonly performed orthopedic procedures. Clinicians can be faced with the diagnostic dilemma of the patient presenting with a painful hip following arthroplasty and satisfactory post-operative radiographs. Identifying the cause of symptoms can be challenging and ultrasound is increasingly being utilized in the evaluation of potential soft tissue complications following hip surgery. In this article, we describe the common surgical approaches used during hip arthroplasty as this can influence the nature and location of subsequent complications. A review of the literature is presented along with the imaging appearances frequently encountered when imaging this patient population.
Considering the toxic effects of arsenic, the World Health Organization recommends a maximum concentration of 10 microg L(-1) of arsenic in drinking water. Latin American populations present severe health problems due to consumption of waters with high arsenic contents. The physicochemical properties of surface and groundwaters are different from those of other more studied regions of the planet, and the problem is still publicly unknown. Methods for arsenic removal suitable to be applied in Latin American waters are here summarized and commented. Conventional technologies (oxidation, coagulation-coprecipitation, adsorption, reverse osmosis, use of ion exchangers) are described, but emphasis is made in emergent decentralized economical methods as the use of inexpensive natural adsorbents, solar light technologies or biological treatments, as essential to palliate the situation in poor, isolated and dispersed populations of Latin American regions.
The arsenic crisis that affects at least thirty million water consumers in Bangladesh has been called the world’s greatest ever environmental health disaster. Although the problem and the potential solutions have been presented confidently in the media, the argument of this paper is that, ironically, very little of the science or the technology is certain. From the spatial and depth variabilities of contamination, through safety thresholds, to the accuracy of field testing kits, we find indeterminacy. We argue that rather than shying away from such uncertainty, however, mitigation policies must acknowledge and embrace it if any real progress is to be made.
This paper develops batch-mixed treatment with zero-valent iron as a point-of-use technology, appropriate for arsenic removal from water stored within rural homes in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, where arsenic poisoning has affected an estimated 20 million people. Batch tests with iron yielded the following results: (1) High arsenic removal (>93%) was achieved from highly arsenated waters (2,000 microg/L) over short contact times (0.5-3h) with iron filings added at doses ranging from 2500 to 625 mg/L; (2) Most rapid arsenic removal was observed in head-space free systems with sulphates present in solution, while phosphate buffers were observed to inhibit arsenic removal by iron; (3) The arsenic removed from water was found to be strongly bound to the elemental iron filings, such that the treated water could be decanted and iron could be reused at least 100 times; (4) Some iron dissolved into water over the contact period, at concentrations ranging from 100 to 300 microg/L, which are within safe drinking water limits. These results indicate that, with appropriate assessment of water chemistry in the affected region, treatment with metallic iron followed by simple decantation can be used as a practical, in-home, point-of-use technique for reducing human exposure to arsenic in drinking water.
All of Bangladesh's approximately 10 million drinking-water tube wells must be periodically tested for arsenic. The magnitude of this task and the limited resources of Bangladesh have led to the use of low-cost, semiquantitative field kits that measure As to a relatively high 50 microg/L national drinking water standard. However, there is an urgent need to supplement and ultimately replace these field kits with an inexpensive laboratory method that can measure As to the more protective 10 microg/L World Health Organization (WHO) health-based drinking water guideline. Unfortunately, Bangladesh has limited access to atomic absorption spectrometers or other expensive instruments that can measure As to the WHO guideline of 10 microg/L. In response to this need, an inexpensive and highly sensitive laboratory method for measuring As has been developed. This new method is the only accurate, precise, and safe way to quantify As < 10 microg/L without expensive or highly specialized laboratory equipment. In this method, As is removed from the sample by reduction to arsine gas, collected in an absorber by oxidation to arsenic acid, colorized by a sequential reaction to arsenomolybdate, and quantified by spectrophotometry. We compared this method with the silver diethyldithiocarbamate [AgSCSN(CH2CH3)2] and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS) methods for measuring As. Our method is more accurate, precise, and environmentally safe than the AgSCSN(CH2CH3)2 method, and it is more accurate and affordable than GFAAS. Finally, this study suggests that Bangladeshis will readily share drinking water with their neighbors to meet the more protective WHO guideline for As of 10 microg/L.
Millions of people in Bangladesh have probably switched their water consumption to wells that meet the local standard for As in drinking water of 50 µg/L as a result of blanket field testing throughout the country. It is therefore important to know if As concentrations in those wells could change over time. To address this issue, we report here precise groundwater As analyses for time-series samples collected from a suite of 20 tube wells containing e50 µg/L As and ranging from 8 to 142 m in depth. For 17 out of 20 wells, the standard deviation of groundwater As concentrations was <10 µg/L over the 3-year monitoring period (n) 24-44 per well). Six of the 17 wells are community wells, each of which serves the needs of several hundred people in particularly affected villages. Of the three wells showing larger fluctuations in chemical composition including As, two are very shallow (8 and 10 m). Variations in As concentrations for one of these wells (50 (32 µg/L, n) 36), as well as another shallow well showing smaller variations (48 (5 µg/L, n) 36), appear to be coupled to seasonal precipitation and recharge linked to the monsoon. The other shallow well showing larger variations in composition indicates a worrisome and steady increase in As concentrations from 50 to 70 µg/L (n) 36) over 3 years. The time series of As (30 (11 µg/L, n) 24) and other constituents in one deep community well (59 m) show large fluctuations that suggest entrainment of shallow groundwater through a broken PVC pipe. Even though the majority of wells that were initially safe remained so for 3 years, our results indicate that tube wells should be tested periodically.
This communication presents results of our 2-year survey on groundwater arsenic contamination in three districts Ballia, Varanasi and Gazipur of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the upper and middle Ganga plain, India. Analyses of 4,780 tubewell water samples revealed that arsenic concentrations in 46.5% exceeded 10 microg/L, in 26.7%, 50 microg/L and in 10% 300 microg/L limits. Arsenic concentrations up to 3,192 microg//L were observed. The age of tubewells (n=1,881) ranged from less than a year to 32 years, with an average of 6.5 years. Our study shows that older tubewells had a greater chance of contamination. Depth of tubewells (n=3,810) varied from 6 to 60.5 m with a mean of 25.75 m. A detailed study in three administrative units within Ballia district, i.e. block, Gram Panchayet, and village was carried out to assess the magnitude of the contamination. Before our survey the affected villagers were not aware that they were suffering from arsenical toxicity through contaminated drinking water. A preliminary clinical examination in 11 affected villages (10 from Ballia and 1 from Gazipur district) revealed typical arsenical skin lesions ranging from melanosis, keratosis to Bowens (suspected). Out of 989 villagers (691 adults, and 298 children) screened, 137 (19.8%) of the adults and 17 (5.7%) of the children were diagnosed to have typical arsenical skin lesions. Arsenical neuropathy and adverse obstetric outcome were also observed, indicating severity of exposure. The range of arsenic concentrations in hair, nail and urine was 137-10,900, 764-19,700 microg/kg, and 23-4,030 microg/L, respectively. The urine, hair and nail concentrations of arsenic correlated significantly (r=0.76, 0.61, and 0.55, respectively) with drinking water arsenic concentrations. The similarity to previous studies on arsenic contamination in West Bengal, Bihar and Bangladesh indicates that people from a significant part of the surveyed areas in UP are suffering and this will spread unless drives to raise awareness of arsenic toxicity are undertaken and an arsenic safe water supply is immediately introduced.
Energy production and consumption cause unintended impacts. Their exclusion by the market leads to suboptimal resource allocations. Conventionally, the market correction is proposed through Pigouvian taxes or Coasian bargaining interventions that shift the equilibrium. The long-life of energy assets and their external impacts need interventions along the future time-path to correct the dynamic equilibrium. The energy modeling literature includes interventions that internalize externalities at the point of energy use, but miss other externalities of energy value chain such as land degradation and health damages from local pollutants (SO2, NOx) in coal mining, impacts on ecosystem during oil and gas exploration and nuclear waste disposal. The life cycle analysis is deployed for full accounting of externalities of energy use for electricity production. A ldquobottom-uprdquo partial equilibrium modeling framework ANSWER-MARKAL is used to internalize the external costs from the static life cycle analysis to generate dynamic energy system equilibrium and to make comparative policy assessment for Indiapsilas energy system.
Willingness to accept (WTA) is usually substantially higher than willingness to pay (WTP). These constructs have been studied for roughly 30 years and with a wide variety of goods. This paper reviews those studies. We find that the less the good is like an “ordinary market good,” the higher is the ratio. The ratio is highest for non-market goods, next highest for ordinary private goods, and lowest for experiments involving forms of money. A generalization of this pattern holds even when we account for differences in survey design: ordinary goods have lower ratios than non-ordinary ones. We also find that ratios in real experiments are not significantly different from hypothetical experiments and that incentive-compatible elicitation yields higher ratios.
Mortality from several cancers, including bladder cancer, is elevated in a Taiwanese population exposed to high levels of arsenic in drinking water. Data from the Utah respondents to the National Bladder Cancer Study conducted in 1978 were used to evaluate these associations in a US population exposed to measurable, but much lower, levels of drinking water arsenic. Two indices of cumulative arsenic exposure were used, one representing total cumulative exposure (index 1) and the other, intake concentration (index 2). Overall, there was no association of bladder cancer with either measure; however, among smokers, but not among nonsmokers, positive trends in risk were found for exposures estimated for decade-long time periods, especially in the 30- to 39-year period prior to diagnosis. Exposures were in the range 0.5-160 micrograms/liter (mean, 5.0 micrograms/liter). The data raise the possibility that smoking potentiates the effect of arsenic on risk of bladder cancer. However, the risk estimates obtained are much higher than predicted on the basis of the results of the Taiwanese studies, raising concerns about bias or the role of chance. Confirmatory studies are needed.
We assessed the levels of arsenic in drilled wells in Finland and studied the association of arsenic exposure with the risk of bladder and kidney cancers. The study persons were selected from a register-based cohort of all Finns who had lived at an address outside the municipal drinking-water system during 1967-1980 (n = 144,627). The final study population consisted of 61 bladder cancer cases and 49 kidney cancer cases diagnosed between 1981 and 1995, as well as an age- and sex-balanced random sample of 275 subjects (reference cohort). Water samples were obtained from the wells used by the study population at least during 1967-1980. The total arsenic concentrations in the wells of the reference cohort were low (median = 0.1 microg/L; maximum = 64 microg/L), and 1% exceeded 10 microg/L. Arsenic exposure was estimated as arsenic concentration in the well, daily dose, and cumulative dose of arsenic. None of the exposure indicators was statistically significantly associated with the risk of kidney cancer. Bladder cancer tended to be associated with arsenic concentration and daily dose during the third to ninth years prior to the cancer diagnosis; the risk ratios for arsenic concentration categories 0.1-0.5 and [Greater/equal to] 0.5 microg/L relative to the category with < 0.1 microg/L were 1.53 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.75-3.09] and 2.44 (CI, 1.11-5.37), respectively. In spite of very low exposure levels, we found some evidence of an association between arsenic and bladder cancer risk. More studies are needed to confirm the possible association between arsenic and bladder cancer risk at such low exposure levels.
Nine districts in West Bengal, India, and 42 districts in Bangladesh have arsenic levels in groundwater above the World Health Organization maximum permissible limit of 50 microg/L. The area and population of the 42 districts in Bangladesh and the 9 districts in West Bengal are 92,106 km(2) and 79.9 million and 38,865 km(2) and 42.7 million, respectively. In our preliminary study, we have identified 985 arsenic-affected villages in 69 police stations/blocks of nine arsenic-affected districts in West Bengal. In Bangladesh, we have identified 492 affected villages in 141 police stations/blocks of 42 affected districts. To date, we have collected 10,991 water samples from 42 arsenic-affected districts in Bangladesh for analysis, 58,166 water samples from nine arsenic-affected districts in West Bengal. Of the water samples that we analyzed, 59 and 34%, respectively, contained arsenic levels above 50 microg/L. Thousands of hair, nail, and urine samples from people living in arsenic-affected villages have been analyzed to date; Bangladesh and West Bengal, 93 and 77% samples, on an average, contained arsenic above the normal/toxic level. We surveyed 27 of 42 districts in Bangladesh for arsenic patients; we identified patients with arsenical skin lesions in 25 districts. In West Bengal, we identified patients with lesions in seven of nine districts. We examined people from the affected villages at random for arsenical dermatologic features (11,180 and 29,035 from Bangladesh and West Bengal, respectively); 24.47 and 15.02% of those examined, respectively, had skin lesions. After 10 years of study in West Bengal and 5 in Bangladesh, we feel that we have seen only the tip of iceberg.
Images
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
For drinking water, the people of Bangladesh used to rely on surface water, which was often contaminated with bacteria causing diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and other life-threatening diseases. To reduce the incidences of these diseases, millions of tubewells were installed in Bangladesh since independence in 1971. This recent transition from surface water to groundwater has significantly reduced deaths from waterborne pathogens; however, new evidence suggests disease and death from arsenic (As) and other toxic elements in groundwater are affecting large areas of Bangladesh. In this evaluation, the areal and vertical distribution of As and 29 other inorganic chemicals in groundwater were determined throughout Bangladesh. This study of 30 analytes per sample and 112 samples suggests that the most significant health risk from drinking Bangladesh's tubewell water is chronic As poisoning. The As concentration ranged from < 0.0007 to 0.64 mg/L, with 48% of samples above the 0.01 mg/L World Health Organization drinking water guideline. Furthermore, this study reveals unsafe levels of manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and chromium (Cr). Our survey also suggests that groundwater with unsafe levels of As, Mn, Pb, Ni, and Cr may extend beyond Bangladesh's border into the four adjacent and densely populated states in India. In addition to the health risks from individual toxins, possible multimetal synergistic and inhibitory effects are discussed. Antimony was detected in 98% of the samples from this study and magnifies the toxic effects of As. In contrast, Se and Zn were below our detection limits in large parts of Bangladesh and prevent the toxic effects of As.
In the usual policy analysis contexts in which one is seeking to value health risks, the standard economic approach is to
ascertain an appropriate monetary equivalent. Money is the currency in which most economists operate, as it provides a standardised
basis for converting all impacts, such as costs of treatment and health benefits, into a common metric.
A research on valuing risks to life and health in thecontext of a developing country is practicallynon-existent. This study provides the first estimatedvalues of life and health, using data from India.These values can aid policy makers, internationalagencies and researchers in evaluating health projectsin developing nations. They can also be used to carryout comparisons with values obtained for developedcountries.
A research on valuing risks to life and health in thecontext of a developing country is practicallynon-existent. This study provides the first estimatedvalues of life and health, using data from India.These values can aid policy makers, internationalagencies and researchers in evaluating health projectsin developing nations. They can also be used to carryout comparisons with values obtained for developedcountries. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2000
A large literature has developed in which labor market contracts are used to estimate the value of a statistical life (VSL). Reported estimates of the VSL vary substantially, from less than $100,000 to more than $25 million. This research uses meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the VSL literature. Results from existing studies are pooled to identify the systematic relationships between VSL estimates and each study's particular features, such as the sample composition and research methods. This meta-analysis suggests that a VSL range of approximately $1.5 million to $2.5 million (in 1998 dollars) is what can be reasonably inferred from past labor-market studies when “best practice” assumptions are invoked. This range is considerably below many previous qualitative reviews of this literature. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
This study utilizes reference lotteries on life and death to establish a death-equivalent metric for valuing long-term health effects. We use a computer-based survey approach to elicit choices among residential locations that pose different risks of chronic disease and dying in an automobile accident. From paired choices between different locations, we infer their rates of trade-off between reducing the risks of chronic diseases and the automobile death risk. The values of reducing the risks from two diseases, a nerve disease (peripheral neuropathy) and lymphoma (cancer of the lymph system), are measured in terms of both trade-off rates with the risk of an automobile death and with dollars.
While the use of reference lotteries for monetary outcomes to establish a utility metric is well established for monetary outcomes, our results suggest that reference lotteries on life and death can also be applied with decision-makers facing realistic choices to construct a utility metric for valuing health status. The results were corroborated by a strong positive correlation between the risk-risk trade-off values and relative aversion scores for the different health outcomes, as well as by the relative values of avoiding the three diseases in our study.
A defensive expenditures approach is used to estimate the benefits of reducing the predicted increases in the rates of nonmelanoma skin cancers over the next 60 years. The defensive expenditures estimates are compared to estimates generated using a cost of illness methodology. The cost of illness estimates are found to be more than double the estimates from the defensive expenditures method.
Environmental economists use the value-of-statistical-life (VSL) approach to value mortality changes resulting from environmental improvement. Because of scarce data, VSL estimates are unavailable for most developing countries. Using robust regression techniques, we conduct a meta-analysis of VSL studies in industrialized countries to derive a VSL prediction function for developing economies accounting for differences in risk, income, human capital levels, and other demographic characteristics of these economies. We apply our estimated VSL to assess the willingness to pay for reduction in mortality linked to air pollution in Santiago, Chile. We find willingness-to-pay estimates in the range of 1992 purchasing power parity (PPP) $519,000–675,000 per life.
Those with greater earnings capacity are likely to choose safer jobs, assuming safety is a normal good. Those who e xperience greater returns to job may choose riskier jobs. This paper estimates wage premia for risk of fatality and injury, allowing unobs ervables to affect earnings capacity and the returns to risk. As the endogeneity of job risk causes bias in OLS estimation, the model is e stimated with simultaneous equations and modified selection bias tech niques. The results indicate that unobserved heterogeneity in the ret urns to risk is important and that OLS underestimates the wage premia for fatality and injury risk. Copyright 1988 by MIT Press.
Groundwater arsenic (As) contamination in West Bengal (WB, India) was first reported in December 1983, when 63 people from three villages of two districts were identified by health officials as suffering from As toxicity. As of October 2001, the authors from the School of Environmental Studies (SOES) have analyzed >105 000 water samples, >25 000 urine/hair/nail/skin-scale samples, screened approximately 86 000 people in WB. The results show that more than 6 million people in 2700 villages from nine affected districts (total population approximately 42 million) of 18 total districts are drinking water containing >/=50 mug l(-1) As and >300 000 people may have visible arsenical skin lesions. The As content of the physiological samples indicates that many more may be sub-clinically affected. Children in As-affected villages may be in special danger. In 1995, we had found three villages in two districts of Bangladesh where groundwater contained >/=50 mug l(-1) As. The present situation is that in 2000 villages in 50 out of total 64 districts of Bangladesh, groundwater contains As above 50 mug l(-1) and more than 25 million people are drinking water above >/=50 mug l(-1) As. After years of research in WB and Bangladesh, additional affected villages are being identified on virtually every new survey. The present research may still reflect only the tip of iceberg in identifying the extent of As contamination. Although the WB As problem became public almost 20 years ago, there are still few concrete plans, much less achievements, to solve the problem. Villagers are probably in worse condition than 20 years ago. Even now, many who are drinking As-contaminated water are not even aware of that fact and its consequences. 20 years ago when the WB government was first informed, it was a casual matter, without the realization of the magnitude this problem was to assume. At least up to 1994, one committee after another was formed but no solution was forthcoming. None of the expert reports has suggested solutions that involve awareness campaigns, education of the villagers and participation of the people. Initially, international aid agencies working in the subcontinent simply did not consider that As could be present in groundwater. Even now, while As in drinking water is being highlighted, there have been almost no studies on how additional As is introduced through the food chain, as large amounts of As are present in the agricultural irrigation water. Past mistakes, notably the ceaseless exploitation of groundwater for irrigation, continue unabated today; at this time, more groundwater is being withdrawn than ever before. No efforts have been made to adopt effective watershed management to harness the extensive surface water and rainwater resources of this region. Proper watershed management and participation by villagers are needed for the proper utilization of water resources and to combat the As calamity. As in groundwater may just be nature's initial warning about more dangerous toxins yet to come. What lessons have we really learned?
A significant dose-response relation between ingested arsenic and several cancers has recently been reported in four townships of the endemic area of blackfoot disease, a unique peripheral artery disease related to the chronic arsenic exposure in southwestern Taiwan. This study was carried out to examine ecological correlations between arsenic level of well water and mortality from various malignant neoplasms in 314 precincts and townships of Taiwan. The arsenic content in water of 83,656 wells was determined by a standard mercuric bromide stain method from 1974 to 1976, while mortality rates of 21 malignant neoplasms among residents in study precincts and townships from 1972 to 1983 were standardized to the world population in 1976. A significant association with the arsenic level in well water was observed for cancers of the liver, nasal cavity, lung, skin, bladder and kidney in both males and females as well as for the prostate cancer in males. These associations remained significant after adjusting for indices of urbanization and industrialization through multiple regression analyses. The multivariate-adjusted regression coefficient indicating an increase in age-adjusted mortality per 100,000 person-years for every 0.1 ppm increase in arsenic level of well water was 6.8 and 2.0, 0.7 and 0.4, 5.3 and 5.3, 0.9 and 1.0, 3.9 and 4.2, as well as 1.1 and 1.7, respectively, in males and females for cancers of the liver, nasal cavity, lung, skin, bladder and kidney. The multivariate-adjusted regression coefficient for the prostate cancer was 0.5. These weighted regression coefficients were found to increase or remain unchanged in further analyses in which only 170 southwestern townships were included.
The occurrence of arsenic in drinking water is an issue of considerable interest. In the case of Bangladesh, arsenic concentrations have been closely monitored since the early 1990s through an extensive sampling network. The focus of the present work is methodological. In particular, we propose the application of a holistochastic framework of human exposure to study lifetime population damage due to arsenic exposure across Bangladesh. The Bayesian Maximum Entropy theory is an important component of this framework, which possesses solid theoretical foundations and offers powerful tools to assimilate a variety of knowledge bases (physical, epidemiologic, toxicokinetic, demographic, etc.) and uncertainty sources (soft data, measurement errors, etc.). The holistochastic exposure approach leads to physically meaningful and informative spatial maps of arsenic distribution in Bangladesh drinking water. Global indicators of the adverse health effects on the population are generated, and valuable insight is gained by blending information from different scientific disciplines. The numerical results indicate an increased lifetime bladder cancer probability for the Bangladesh population due to arsenic. The health effect estimates obtained and the associated uncertainty assessments are valuable tools for a broad spectrum of end-users.
A substantial literature over the past thirty years has evaluated tradeoffs between money and fatality risks. These values in turn serve as estimates of the value of a statistical life. This article reviews more than 60 studies of mortality risk premiums from ten countries and approximately 40 studies that present estimates of injury risk premiums. This critical review examines a variety of econometric issues, the role of unionization in risk premiums, and the effects of age on the value of a statistical life. Our meta-analysis indicates an income elasticity of the value of a statistical life from about 0.5 to 0.6. The paper also presents a detailed discussion of policy applications of these value of a statistical life estimates and related issues, including risk-risk analysis. Copyright 2003 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
This study contributes to the hedonic wage literature in developing countries by estimating the collective willingness to pay of a statistical life/injury, using an original data set from the Indian labor market. As self-selection by workers results in biased estimates of the wage premium for job risks, the study uses a modified selectivity bias correction technique. Empirical results indicate substantial heterogeneity in returns to risk. The estimated value of life without selectivity bias is Rs. 56 million (US $3 million), which is substantially larger than the value with selection bias. The estimates provided by the study can aid policy makers, international agencies and other researchers in evaluating health projects in India and other developing countries. Copyright 2001 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
Arsenic Mitigation in West Bengal and Bangladesh: Helping Households Respond to a Water Quality Crisis. Water Sanitation Programme
- Water
- Sanitation
Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in Bangladesh British Geological Survey Report WC/00/19 Keyworth: British Geological Survey. Available at: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/arsenic/bangladesh/reports
- D Kinniburgh
- P Smedley
Valuing Mortality Reductions in India: A Study of Compensating Wage Differential. Working Paper WPS-2078. Washing-ton, DC: The World BankContamination of Drinking Water by Arsenic in Bangladesh: A Public Health Emergency
- N Simon
- M Cropper
- A Alberini
- S Arora
Simon, N., M. Cropper, A. Alberini and S. Arora (1999), Valuing Mortality Reductions in India: A Study of Compensating Wage Differential. Working Paper WPS-2078. Washing-ton, DC: The World Bank. Smith A., E. Lingas, and M. Rahman (2000), 'Contamination of Drinking Water by Arsenic in Bangladesh: A Public Health Emergency', Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 78, 1093–1103.
Individual WTPs for Reductions in Cancer Death Risks Environmental Resource Valuation: Applications of the Contingent Valuation Method in Italy (pp. 196–212) Dordrecht National Data Bank of Statistics, Ministry of Planning Statistics Wing, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
- A Aimola
Aimola, A. (1998), 'Individual WTPs for Reductions in Cancer Death Risks', in R. Bishop, and D. Romano, eds., Environmental Resource Valuation: Applications of the Contingent Valuation Method in Italy (pp. 196–212). Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2003), National Data Bank of Statistics, Ministry of Planning Statistics Wing, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Available at: http:// www.bbsgov.org Bates, M., A. Smith and K. Cantor (1995), 'Case–Contro1 Study of Bladder Cancer and Arsenic in Drinking Water', American Journal of Epidemiology 141, 523–530.
Proposed Arsenic in Drinking Water Rule Regulatory Impact Analysis. Document No. EPA 815-R-00-013
- Valuing Arsenic
- Of Groundwater In
- Bangladesh
VALUING ARSENIC CONTAMINATION OF GROUNDWATER IN BANGLADESH United States Environmental Protection Agency (2000), Proposed Arsenic in Drinking Water Rule Regulatory Impact Analysis. Document No. EPA 815-R-00-013. Washington, DC: United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The Value of Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates Throughout the World Arsenic Mitigation in West Bengal and Bangladesh: Helping Households Respond to a Water Quality Crisis
- K Viscusi
- J Aldy
- David Maddison
- Al
Viscusi, K. and J. Aldy (2003), The Value of Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates Throughout the World. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 9487. Cambridge: MA. Water Sanitation Programme (2000), Arsenic Mitigation in West Bengal and Bangladesh: Helping Households Respond to a Water Quality Crisis. Water Sanitation Programme, South Asia Region. Washington, DC: World Bank. DAVID MADDISON ET AL.
Arsenic – Listening to Rural Communities Willingness to Pay for Arsenic Free ‘Safe’ Drinking Water in Bangladesh. Draft report prepared for Water and Sanitation Programme
- J Ahmed
- B Goldar
- S Misra
Water Supply Options for Arsenic Affected Areas of Bangladesh. Paper presented at an International Workshop on
- M Ahmed
Effects of the Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in BangladeshReport prepared for the Environment Division
- D Maddison
- R Catala-Luque
- D Pearce
Wage Differentials and the Endogeneity of Job RiskinessReview of Economics and Statistics70916
- J Garen
Between Countries in Values of Statistical LifeJournal of Transport Economics and Policy34169188
- T Miller
Determines the Value of Life? A Meta-AnalysisJournal of Policy Analysis and Management21253270
- J Mrozek
- L Taylor
Value of Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates Throughout the WorldNational Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 9487
- K Viscusi
- J Aldy
- K. Viscusi