Environmental Lead Exposure and Adult Literacy in Myanmar: An Exploratory Study of Potential Associations at the Township Level

Robert C. MacTavish, Liam W. Rémillard and Colleen M. Davison
Additional contact information
Robert C. MacTavish: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Liam W. Rémillard: Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen’s University, 99 University Ave, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
Colleen M. Davison: Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen’s University, 99 University Ave, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: Environmental lead exposure is a population health concern in many low- and middle-income countries. Lead is found throughout Myanmar and prior to the 1940s the country was the largest producer of lead worldwide. The aim of this study was to examine any potential association between lead mining and adult literacy rates at the level of 330 townships in Myanmar. Townships were identified as lead or non-lead mining areas and 2015 census data were examined with association being identified using descriptive, analytical and spatial statistical methods. Overall, there does appear to be a significant relationship between lead mining activity and adult literacy levels among townships with both low access ( p = 0.05; OR = 2.701 (1.136–6.421)) as well with high access to safe sanitation ( p = 0.01; OR = 18.40 (1.794–188.745)). Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) cluster maps confirm these findings. This exploratory analysis is a first step in the examination of potential environmental lead exposure and its implications in Myanmar.

Keywords: lead exposure; adult literacy; global health; environmental health; Myanmar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1086/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1086/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:6:p:1086-:d:149288

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().