{"id":21772,"date":"2024-09-24T11:18:52","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T15:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=21772"},"modified":"2024-10-24T13:49:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T17:49:22","slug":"student-citizen-scientists-build-awareness-and-help-reduce-arsenic-exposure-in-well-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2024\/student-citizen-scientists-build-awareness-and-help-reduce-arsenic-exposure-in-well-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Citizen Scientists Build Awareness and Help Reduce Arsenic Exposure in Well Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

Results from a new study<\/a> led by researchers at Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine and the Mount Desert Island (MDI) Biological Laboratory show that engaging schools and students in a citizen science program can help reduce arsenic exposure in private well water.<\/p>\n

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element widely distributed in the Earth\u2019s crust. Exposure to the toxicant in well water is a well-documented health issue for New Hampshire and Maine, as well as for other states in the U.S. and abroad. Arsenic exposure has been associated with an increased risk of cancer (especially bladder cancer in New England), cardiovascular disease, reduced infection resistance, and lower intelligence quotient in children.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bruce Stanton, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAbout half of the households in New Hampshire and Maine rely on private wells, which are not regulated by any agency, and research we\u2019ve done at Dartmouth and elsewhere has shown that around 20 percent of people have arsenic in their well water but don\u2019t know about it,\u201d explains Bruce Stanton, PhD, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Geisel and lead co-author on the study. \u201cEven when people know there is arsenic in the water, they may not treat their water to remove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Stanton headed up a Superfund Research Program looking at arsenic exposure with a number of collaborators from across Dartmouth. The program was funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Services and involved working with entities like the U.S. Geological Survey, the State of New Hampshire, and local communities with the major goal of raising awareness about the issue. Despite their efforts, well-water testing rates have remained low.<\/p>\n

For this new study, Stanton decided to take a creative approach, partnering with Jane Disney, PhD, at the MDI Biological Laboratory, an expert in citizen science programs and lead co-author on the study. They successfully landed a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) grant from the NIH to create a school-based citizen science program known as All About Arsenic (AAA).<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thinking was, if I tell you that you have arsenic in your well, you might not appreciate the health risks,\u201d says Stanton. \u201cArsenic is odorless and tasteless, so you can\u2019t tell if it\u2019s there without a test. But if your kids tell you there\u2019s arsenic in your well, you\u2019re much more likely to take notice. You\u2019re going to want to protect your kids\u2014that was the theme of our approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

For their five-year study, the investigators engaged secondary school teachers and students as citizen scientists in collecting well water samples for analysis of arsenic and other toxic metals and supported their outreach efforts to their communities\u2014which included attending town meetings and testifying in front of both state legislatures.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In all, the students collected 3,070 drinking water samples from their own homes and in some cases from the homes of neighbors and other community members\u2014with 752 (24 percent) exceeding New Hampshire\u2019s arsenic standard of 5 parts per billion. As a result of their efforts, more that 1,000 households now have the knowledge to remediate arsenic and be protected from elevated arsenic levels. And the AAA data has more than doubled the amount of information available to public health agencies about well water quality in multiple municipalities across both states.<\/p>\n

The study team assessed the project\u2019s public health impact by analyzing student data relative to existing well water quality datasets in New Hampshire and Maine. In addition, they surveyed private well owners who contributed well water samples to the project to determine the actions taken to remediate the toxicant in well water.<\/p>\n

The team was able to show that a school-based approach to collecting and analyzing private well water samples can successfully reach communities with low testing rates. Importantly, information generated through the program can impact household decision-making, and students can influence local and state policymaking by sharing information with their communities.<\/p>\n

One of the most impressive aspects of the study has been the initiative that the students have shown and how excited they\u2019ve been to be able to apply what they\u2019ve learned about science and math directly in their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, science can be pretty boring if students just read about it in a textbook, but when they actually get their hands on it, collect the samples, and look at the data, it makes it real for them,\u201d says Stanton, who is pleased to report that the STEM grant was recently renewed for another five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, science can be pretty boring if students just read about it in a textbook, but when they actually get their hands on it, collect the samples, and look at the data, it makes it real for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

- Bruce Stanton, PhD<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been a big part of the progress we\u2019ve made to date, as has been the contributions we\u2019ve gotten from our study team members and our colleagues at Dartmouth\u2014who have included Brian Jackson from earth sciences, Bill Green and Steve Fiering from microbiology and immunology, and the Dartmouth Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re very pleased with the results, I don\u2019t think any of us will be satisfied until every single well in our states has been tested and remediated and none of our children and adults are exposed to arsenic,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why our mantra is, \u2018Test your well, and test your well regularly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Results from a new study led by researchers at Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine and the Mount Desert Island (MDI) Biological Laboratory show that engaging schools and students in a citizen science program can help reduce arsenic exposure in private well water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":21802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[269,652],"class_list":["post-21772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bruce-stanton","tag-water","author-26"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/09\/WellWaterTesting_featured.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-5Fa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21772"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22089,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21772\/revisions\/22089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}