<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><h3 style="font-weight: bold; ">KNIGHT SEMINAR: April 12, meet in E19-623 at 4:00pm</h3><h3 style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><p style="font-size: medium; "><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><strong><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Throwing the Baby out with the Drinking Water: Unintended Consequences of Arsenic Mitigation Efforts in Bangladesh</span></font></b><br></strong><u><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#144FAE">Erica Field, <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#070707"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Associate Professor of Economics, Harvard University</span></font></font></u></font></strong></p><p style="font-size: medium; "><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"></font></strong></p><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">The 1994 discovery of arsenic in ground water in Bangladesh prompted a massive</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">public health eort to test all tubewells in the country and convince nearly one-quarter of the population to switch to arsenic-free drinking water sources. According to numerous sources, the campaign was eective in leading the majority of households at risk of arsenic poisoning to abandon backyard wells in favor of more remote tubewells or surface water sources, a switch widely believed to have saved numerous lives. We investigate the possibility of unintended health consequences of the wide-scale abandonment of shallow tubewells due to higher exposure to fecal-oral pathogens in water from arsenic-free sources. Signicant small-scale variability of arsenic concentrations in ground water allows us to compare trends in infant and child mortality between otherwise similar households in the same village who did and did not have an incentive to abandon shallow tubewells. While child mortality rates were similar among households with arsenic-contaminated and arsenic-free wells prior to public knowledge of the arsenic problem, post-2000 households living on arsenic-contaminated land have 27% <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; "><div style="display: inline !important; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; display: inline !important; ">higher rates of infant and child mortality than those not encouraged to switch sources, implying that the campaign doubled mortality from diarrheal disease. These findings provide novel evidence of a strong association between drinking water contamination and child mortality, a question of current scientic debate in settings with high levels of exposure to microbial pathogens through other channels.</div></span></font></div></span></div></font></strong></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; "><div style="display: inline !important; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; display: inline !important; "><br></div></span></font></div></span></div></font></strong></span></div></span></font></div></span></div></font></strong></h3><h3 style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "></h3><h3 style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><p style="font-size: medium; "><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"></font></strong></p><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; "></div></font></strong><p></p></h3><p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><strong><font color="red"></font></strong></p><div style="text-align: justify; "><p align=""><span style="position: relative; z-index: 4;"></span></p><p></p></div><div style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span style="position: relative; z-index: 4;"></span></div><p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><strong><font color="red">**************************</font></strong></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><strong><font color="red"></font></strong></p><strong><font color="red"></font></strong><strong><font color="red"></font></strong><div><h3 style="font-weight: bold; ">NO SEMINAR: April 14, due to AHCJ.</h3></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800;"><br></span></font></div><div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: medium;"></span></font></b></span></font></div></div></div></div></div><div apple-content-edited="true"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; "><strong><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; "></span></div></font></strong></span></div></div></div></div><div apple-content-edited="true"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div></div><div><br></div><div>Eric Strattman</div><div>Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at MIT</div><div>E19-623</div><div>77 Massachusetts Avenue</div><div>Cambridge MA 02139</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></div></body></html>