Grant: Knowledge Translation Supplement

Exposure to manganese from water is often regarded as of little concern and concentrations in drinking water are not subject to regulation. The findings of our recent study, financed by CIHR (#166093), indicate that, higher manganese is associated with lower IQ, before and after adjustment for confounders (including maternal education and intelligence, home stimulation, family income, and other metals in tap water). In adjusted analyses, a 10-fold increase in water manganese concentration is associated with a decrease of 2.4 points in Full Scale IQ (P=0.002). These results were obtained at manganese concentrations common in Canadian drinking water whose source is from groundwater. Here, we propose to disseminate our research results to federal, provincial and municipal authorities in public health and environment, as well as to the study participants and the larger community. We will use a multi-disciplinary knowledge transfer (KT) strategy that respects the peer review process and provides information on short and long-term solutions to reduce manganese exposure from drinking water. Activities include individual meetings with authorities, preparation of a brochure and a visual presentation in accessible language, meetings with the study participants from the 8 participating municipalities, public meetings with a wider audience from rural areas where groundwater is used for drinking, preparation of an article for the public health community and writing of memoranda for national and international regulatory agencies for drinking water. The expected impact of the KT activities are (i) a greater awareness of the potential harmful effects of elevated manganese on children; (ii) reduction of manganese in drinking water; (iii) new regulations for manganese in drinking water, nationally and internationally; (iv) an improvement in children's intellectual capacities for future generations, since we do not know, at this time, whether the observed effects are reversible.