"We have elected to focus on schools, child care facilities, and parks where groups of young children might be present, trying to take steps to reduce exposures for kids," says Dave Bradley, a toxicologist and risk assessor with the Toxics Cleanup Program in the Washington State Department of Ecology.
A recent report from the HEALS prospective study found that the risk of skin lesions did not decrease after reducing exposure for up to several years (Argos et al. 2011).
Because of the spatial heterogeneity of As in groundwater well switching has been estimated to be a viable option for reducing exposure for all but 13%percentt of the population that lives in areas with greater than 80% arsenic contamination [ 10, 14].
Testing foods and drinking water for arsenic, including individual private wells, should be a top priority to reduce exposure, particularly for pregnant women and children, given the potential for life-long effects of developmental exposure.
Reclamation of abandoned mined land in the region is critically important in order to reduce exposure levels for the local population (23, 24).
In the meantime, countries will encourage voluntary efforts to reduce exposure to mercury, for example, by lowering the amounts in thermometers and in mining.
Public health policies have been developed in the United Kingdom to further reduce exposure and potential for disease in those considered at risk.
Accurately identifying the "at risk" population is crucial and attempts should be made to reduce exposure misclassification when, for example, using proxy variables or indirect exposure assessment (Hodgson et al. 2007).
It is expected that these laws could potentially reduce exposure to pesticides for over 1 million children in the city's 1,500 public schools, as well as hundreds of thousands of other residents.
