Apr 08, 2014 02:19 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Exposure to arsenic in drinking water may lead to a decline in intelligence, according to a recent study HealthDay reported.

Researchers from Columbia University in New York found that school children in three school districts in Maine exposed to arsenic in well water experienced declined in child intelligence.

"While earlier studies conducted by the researchers of South Asia, and Bangladesh in particular, showed that exposure to arsenic in drinking water is negatively associated with child intelligence, this is the first study to examine intelligence against individual water arsenic exposures in the [United States]," researchers said in the study.

Arsenic, a chemical element that is found in soil and minerals, can cause many health problems, and high level of exposure can even cause death, HealthDay reported.

For the study, researchers assessed 272 children in grades 3 through 5, who were, on average, 10 years old, from three school districts in Maine where household wells are the predominant source for drinking water and cooking.

Using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the most often used assessment tool for measuring intelligence in children ages 6 to 16, researchers found that exposure to arsenic in well water was associated with lower intelligence scores.  Children who were exposed to larger amounts of arsenic showed reductions in full scale, working memory, perceptual reasoning, and verbal comprehension scores.

"The strength of associations found in this study is comparable to the modest increases that have been found in blood lead, an established risk factor for diminished IQ," Joseph Graziano, leader of the study and professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University's Mailman school of Public Health, said in a statement.

Researchers also found that, on average, water arsenic levels measured at the homes of the participants were 9.88 micrograms per liter (mcg/L), with nearly one-third of samples exceeding the maximum 10 mcg/L guideline of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization. The highest level of water arsenic reported was 115.3 mcg/L.

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