India, June 17 -- Babies born to mothers who may have been exposed to small amounts of arsenic in public drinking water, even levels considered safe by federal standards, were more likely to be born early, have low birthweight, or be smaller than expected, according to a study conducted by researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
For the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers looked at data from nearly 14,000 mothers and their babies. They estimated how much arsenic each mother may have been exposed to during pregnancy by looking at local water quality and where the mothers lived. However, they didn't directly measure arsenic in the participants.
The results showed that even low-leve...