ORIGINAL PAPER Effect of Arsenic and Manganese Exposure on Intellectual Function of Children in Arsenic Stress Area of Purbasthali, Burdwan, West Bengal Soumya Bikash Ghosh 1 • Deep Chakraborty 1 • Naba Kumar Mondal 1 Received: 22 February 2016 / Revised: 1 June 2016 / Accepted: 1 June 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract Arsenic existing in the soil and ground water worldwide is known as a neurotoxic that affects the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral neuropathy caused by chronic or sub acute arsenic exposure by inhalation or oral route is well documented. However, the effects of arsenic, especially chronic low-level exposure, on the central nervous system have been rarely reported. The present result highlights the direct interference of arsenic in the cognitive level of the school of children. The arsenic level in drinking water ranges from 0.0507 to 0.084 ppm with mean, SD, and SE are 0.0506, ±0.0196, and 0.0018, respectively. Mean IQ level in the contami- nated area varies between 76 and 120 and two-sample t test results show significance difference (p \ 0.000) with control. The multiple regression analysis suggests strong negative regression coefficient (-308.2) of IQ with water borne arsenic (WAs). Almost similar negative regression coefficient (-6.513) is also recorded with memory power. Results also suggest the inconsistency with urine arsenic and drinking water arsenic. On the other hand, drinking water manganese level also demonstrates weak relation with IQ. Keywords Arsenic Á Manganese Á School children Á Drinking water Á Multiple regression Á Intellectual function Introduction Arsenic is a heavy metalloid which widely distributed in the environment due to its natural and anthropogenic sources. It exists in inorganic and organic forms with dif- ferent oxidation states. High levels of inorganic arsenic are found in groundwater in many regions of the world as a result of geochemical processes cause serious chronic health hazard to humans. In environmental exposure, tox- icologists are primarily concerned with arsenic in trivalent and pentavalent oxidation state (Baldissarelli et al. 2012). Widespread arsenic contamination of groundwater has led to a massive prevalence of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh and neighboring countries. It is estimated that approxi- mately 57 million people in the Bengal basin are drinking groundwater with arsenic concentrations elevated above the World Health Organization’s standard of 0.01 ppm. Globally, Southeast Asian countries are the most severely affected by groundwater arsenic contamination with Ban- gladesh being the worst of all (Chakraborti et al. 2010). Major affected regions are South-East Asia region, the basin of the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna Rivers, and the Mekong Delta. It is reported that across the different states of Eastern India, the occurrence of diseases resulting from arsenic toxicity was first reported in West Bengal in early 1983 (Garai et al. 1984). Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a major public health concern in West Bengal and elsewhere (Rahman et al. 2005). Millions of people have been exposed to excess arsenic through drinking water that comes majorly from groundwater (Duker et al. 2005; Hu et al. 2015). Chronic toxicity of arsenic in human from arsenic–contaminated drinking water occurs in 3417 villages spread over 111 blocks, primarily within 12 districts of this state (Mondal et al. 2011), affecting more than 1.5 million of people (De 2008) & Naba Kumar Mondal nkmenvbu@gmail.com 1 Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Environmental Science, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal, India 123 Expo Health DOI 10.1007/s12403-016-0216-8