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Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water and Mental Health

Author

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  • Shyamal Chowdhury

    (University of Sydney and IZA)

  • Annabelle Krause

    (IZA)

  • Klaus F. Zimmermann

    (Princeton University, IRS and UNU-MERIT)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of drinking arsenic contaminated water on mental health. Drinking water with an unsafe arsenic level for a prolonged period can lead to arsenicosis and associated illness. Based on rich and newly collected household survey data from Bangladesh, we construct several measures for arsenic contamination that include the actual arsenic level in the respondent's tubewell (TW), and past institutional arsenic test results as well as their physical and mental health. In contrast to the existing literature, we provide objective measures of arsenic exposure and take advantage of the quasi-randomness of arsenic distribution to account for the potential endogeneity of developing arsenicosis related to possible selection of certain households into using safe or unsafe sources of water. We take the pre-1999 use of TW as an instrument and structural modelling as alternatives for robustness checks. We find that suffering from an arsenicosis symptom is strongly negatively related to mental health, even more so than from other illnesses. While we cannot disentangle the specific mechanisms that drive the results, we do provide a framework for thinking about the role that physiological, social, and psychological factors may play on it.

Suggested Citation

  • Shyamal Chowdhury & Annabelle Krause & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2016. "Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water and Mental Health," Working Papers 607, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:indrel:607
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    Cited by:

    1. Barnwal, Prabhat & van Geen, Alexander & von der Goltz, Jan & Singh, Chander Kumar, 2017. "Demand for environmental quality information and household response: Evidence from well-water arsenic testing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 160-192.
    2. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Chowdhury, Shyamal & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Economic preferences across generations and family clusters: A large-scale experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14998, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Samuel Brazys & Minhaj Mahmud, 2022. "Poisoning the Well? The "Last Mile" Politics of Donor Control and Elite Capture in Bangladesh's Arsenic Mitigation," Working Papers 202207, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    4. Elsner, Benjamin & Wozny, Florian, 2018. "The Human Capital Cost of Radiation: Long-Run Evidence from Exposure Outside the Womb," IZA Discussion Papers 11408, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Alessandro Tarozzi & Ricardo Maertens & Kazi Matin Ahmed & Alexander van Geen, 2021. "Demand for Information on Environmental Health Risk, Mode of Delivery, and Behavioral Change: Evidence from Sonargaon, Bangladesh," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(3), pages 764-792.
    6. Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2016. "Health shocks and well-being," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(1), pages 155-164, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Arsenic; Water Pollution; Mental Health; Subjective Well-Being; Environment; Bangladesh;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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