Lead and Livestock: Estimating India’s Bovine Lead Exposure∗

We provide an annual bovine lead exposure estimate for India utilizing random forest modeling, PureEarth’s Toxic Sites Identification Program database, and the FAO’s Gridded Livestock dataset. In aggregate, India suffered 3,273 bovine fatalities, $ 21,437,575 of economic damages, and 23.1 km of lethally contaminated land across 222 used lead acid battery recycling sites. This implies per-site averages of 14.7 fatalities, $ 96,566 in economic damages, and 0.10 km of lethally contaminated land. Without remediation efforts, damages are likely to repeat every year. While this is a conservative estimate, the identified per-site damages indicate an unrecognized severe burden on the rural poor. ∗Lead author and contact: Greg Ferraro, ghferraro@gmail.com. We would like to thank Dr. Johnathon Cooper, who provided a veterinarian’s review of the paper’s assumptions on livestock toxicology. Financial support was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP). The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the study sponsors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis or data interpretation. We thank Fordham University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for student travel funding to visit associated used lead acid battery recycling sites in India.

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