Arsenic research identifies avoidable health risks from groundwater arsenic informing increased awareness, policy change and mitigation

Impact: Health and wellbeing, Policy, Environmental

Narrative

Worldwide over 100,000,000 people are exposed to arsenic through the use of high arsenic groundwaters, resulting in 100,000s of premature deaths annually. Our research has enabled better prediction of groundwater arsenic, has highlighted eating rice as a major arsenic exposure route, and provided quantitative estimates of arsenic-attributable health and economic risks. Our research has informed development of government and non-government policies and actions to reduce the health and economic impacts of exposure to groundwater arsenic. Beneficiaries include:(i) millions of people globally whose arsenic exposure through eating rice has been reduced;(ii) [text removed for publication] households in Bihar, India through mitigation of contaminated water supplies; [text removed for publication] and the prevention of [text removed for publication] avoidable premature deaths; and(iii) populations exposed to chemical environmental agents in England and Wales, where our work has contributed to the development of Environmental Public Health Tracking.
Impact date1 Aug 2013 → 31 Jul 2020
Category of impactHealth and wellbeing, Policy, Environmental
Impact levelAdoption

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Global inequalities
  • Dalton Nuclear Institute
  • Manchester Environmental Research Institute

Documents & Links

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