A recent peer-reviewed study suggests that even low levels of arsenic consumption may impact cognitive function in children, adolescents, and young adults.
Key points
- The research study found that those exposed to arsenic had reduced grey matter (brain tissue that is vital to cognitive functions) and weaker connections within key regions of the brain that enable concentration, switching between tasks, and temporary storage of information.
- According to the journal, chronic exposure to arsenic could be creating a ‘silent pandemic’ affecting large portions of the global population.
- Arsenic exposure is particularly harmful to the poor. This study too, reinforced the fact that the economic and nutritionally poor face greater cognitive impairment from arsenic exposure.
- The new insight emerged from the C-Veda data. C-Veda (Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalizing Disorders and Addictions) is an India-United Kingdom research initiative, spanning several universities.
- C-VEDA aims to evaluate the effect of risk – whether biological and environmental – on cognitive development and also compare these effects across people in industrialising (India) and industrialised (United Kingdom) societies.
- For participants in the study, exposure to arsenic was strongly linked to food intake, indicating that background inorganic and organic arsenic in foods is a major contributor to arsenic exposure in many parts of India beyond those regions where arsenic exposure from groundwater is naturally known to be high.
- West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Manipur have long been identified as regions with high background arsenic levels.
- Arsenic intake from food was most commonly correlated with rice intake, which is more commonly consumed in south India (Rishi Valley and Bangalore) and where the highest mean arsenic levels were observed.
