Arsenic in private well water and birth outcomes in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Prenatal exposure to drinking water with arsenic concentrations >50 μg/L is associated with adverse birth outcomes, with inconclusive evidence for concentrations ≤50 μg/L. In a collaborative effort by public health experts, hydrologists, and geologists, we used published machine learning model estimates to characterize arsenic concentrations in private wells-federally unregulated for drinking water contaminants-and evaluated associations with birth outcomes throughout the conterminous U.S.

Methods

Using several machine learning models, including boosted regression trees (BRT) and random forest classification (RFC), developed from measured groundwater arsenic concentrations of ∼20,000 private wells, we characterized the probability that arsenic concentrations occur

SUBMITTER: Bulka CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9052362 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature