Arsenic toxicity deleteriously impacts labour supply of BD
Sunday, 5 December 2010
FE Report
An international study has disclosed that arsenic toxicity deleteriously impacts labour supply of Bangladesh which affects the struggling economy of the country.
Word Health Organisation (WHO) called it "largest mass poisoning of a population in history".
According to the research, published online in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, revealed that revelation to arsenic in rural Bangladesh was poisonous to the nation's economy, reducing the labour supply by 8 per cent.
The international team of economists lead by Richard Carson, professor of economics at the University of California, is the first to identify a dramatic present-day consequence of the contaminated groundwater wells.
The research predicted that longer-term damages are expected to occur in coming years.
Commenting on the finding of the research, WHO claimed it as the largest mass poisoning of a population in history and known to be responsible for a host of slow-developing diseases which also impact work arrangements which create an immediate and toxic effect on the struggling nation's economy.
According to the research, in Bangladesh, the problem was created by a well-mining attempt in 1970s to alleviate diseases, those caused by waterborne pathogens in surface water.
Encouraged by international aid agencies, Bangladesh installed millions of tube wells throughout the country about 30 years ago to replace surface water as the primary source of drink.
Lead author of the publication Carson said, "As diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal diseases from contaminated surface water cleared up quickly, it seemed that the well-water solution had been successful and it was not until 1993 that the country's chronic arsenic poisoning was diagnosed," adding to it "the massive scale of the problem was not fully known until around 2000".
The report shows, the arsenic exposure had also altered work arrangements, changing how labour is allocated within a household.
"Bangladesh is a poor country and many of its citizens have limited access to healthcare and health insurance; so most families have to fend for themselves. As a result, women older than 45 are working fewer hours outside the home while men aged 25 to 65 are working more," the report said.
"Essentially, what we think is happening," Carson said, "is that grandma stays home to take care of the sick people while all the able-bodied men are working longer hours to compensate."
Concerning the research, Carson and his co-authors looked at the relationship between arsenic exposure and hours worked by households as reported in the Bangladesh government's standard survey used for this purpose.
Their sample included 4,259 rural households from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey carried out by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2000 and was matched with data on arsenic contamination from a large-scale study done by the British Geological Survey.
Carson believes that the deleterious and quantifiable impact on labour can be immediately understood by government officials who are sometimes tempted to put economic development ahead of health, to think "let's get income up first, then we can clean up."
The paper shows that the environment is not the luxury, the environmentally related health problems are sufficiently large and they are holding back development.
The report informed, "Bangladesh is most severely affected by arsenic pollution of its groundwater. But it is a worldwide problem, with impacts in the West Bengal of India and parts of Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Argentina ,Chile and even in some areas of the United States, too
An international study has disclosed that arsenic toxicity deleteriously impacts labour supply of Bangladesh which affects the struggling economy of the country.
Word Health Organisation (WHO) called it "largest mass poisoning of a population in history".
According to the research, published online in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, revealed that revelation to arsenic in rural Bangladesh was poisonous to the nation's economy, reducing the labour supply by 8 per cent.
The international team of economists lead by Richard Carson, professor of economics at the University of California, is the first to identify a dramatic present-day consequence of the contaminated groundwater wells.
The research predicted that longer-term damages are expected to occur in coming years.
Commenting on the finding of the research, WHO claimed it as the largest mass poisoning of a population in history and known to be responsible for a host of slow-developing diseases which also impact work arrangements which create an immediate and toxic effect on the struggling nation's economy.
According to the research, in Bangladesh, the problem was created by a well-mining attempt in 1970s to alleviate diseases, those caused by waterborne pathogens in surface water.
Encouraged by international aid agencies, Bangladesh installed millions of tube wells throughout the country about 30 years ago to replace surface water as the primary source of drink.
Lead author of the publication Carson said, "As diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal diseases from contaminated surface water cleared up quickly, it seemed that the well-water solution had been successful and it was not until 1993 that the country's chronic arsenic poisoning was diagnosed," adding to it "the massive scale of the problem was not fully known until around 2000".
The report shows, the arsenic exposure had also altered work arrangements, changing how labour is allocated within a household.
"Bangladesh is a poor country and many of its citizens have limited access to healthcare and health insurance; so most families have to fend for themselves. As a result, women older than 45 are working fewer hours outside the home while men aged 25 to 65 are working more," the report said.
"Essentially, what we think is happening," Carson said, "is that grandma stays home to take care of the sick people while all the able-bodied men are working longer hours to compensate."
Concerning the research, Carson and his co-authors looked at the relationship between arsenic exposure and hours worked by households as reported in the Bangladesh government's standard survey used for this purpose.
Their sample included 4,259 rural households from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey carried out by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2000 and was matched with data on arsenic contamination from a large-scale study done by the British Geological Survey.
Carson believes that the deleterious and quantifiable impact on labour can be immediately understood by government officials who are sometimes tempted to put economic development ahead of health, to think "let's get income up first, then we can clean up."
The paper shows that the environment is not the luxury, the environmentally related health problems are sufficiently large and they are holding back development.
The report informed, "Bangladesh is most severely affected by arsenic pollution of its groundwater. But it is a worldwide problem, with impacts in the West Bengal of India and parts of Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Argentina ,Chile and even in some areas of the United States, too