Arsenic mitigation in Bangladesh: a household labor market approach

This article was presented in an invited-paper session at the 2010 annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations in Atlanta, GA. The articles in these sessions are not subjected to the journal’s standard refereeing process.International audienceA major environmental tragedy of modern times is the widespread arsenic contamination of shallow drinking water wells in rural Bangladesh which went unrecognized for years. Large numbers of people are now starting to show a range of symptoms long associated with chronic arsenic exposure. Rural families in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, face financial risks from major illness both from the cost of medical care and from the loss of income associated with reduced labor supply and productivity