Having
been exposes to pesticides myself and having spent time in Sri Lanka
this is of personal interest to me
Study
Links Kidney Disease in Sri Lanka’s Farm Belt to Agrochemicals
-
A new report links the high prevalence of chronic kidney disease in
Sri Lanka’s main agricultural production regions with the presence
of heavy metals in the water, caused by fertiliser and pesticide use.
IPS,
21
August, 2012
Over
the past two decades, dozens of studies have been conducted on the
large number of kidney patients in Sri Lanka’s agro-rich
north-central region. However, none had conclusively identified a
clear cause.
But
on Aug. 14, a group of Sri Lankan doctors released a report that they
said was compiled as part of an ongoing joint research project by the
Sri Lankan government and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The
report states that: “Exposure to a combination of factors that are
toxic to the kidneys (rather than one single factor) seems to cause
this kidney disease. Toxic factors identified up to now include
nephrotoxic agrochemicals, arsenic and cadmium.”
Cultivating
Toxic Crops
As
many as 400,000 people in the north-central region may be suffering
from kidney disease, said doctors taking part in the release of the
report. They added that in the past two decades, as many as 22,000
people may have died as a result.
“The
reason for the spread is heavy metals in the water caused by the
unregulated use of fertiliser and pesticides,” Dr. Channa
Jayasumana, from the Faculty of Medicine at the Rajarata University
in Anuradhapura, told IPS.
Jayasumana
was on the team of doctors who released the report. They said they
had handed the study over to the government last year, and accused
the authorities of failing to release it to the public, and of
failing to take action on the results.
The
report created a media stir in the country, but so far neither the
government nor the WHO country office have acknowledged or denied its
contents.
WHO
sources confirmed to IPS that a researcher cited in the report, Dr.
Shanthi Mendis, works for the international organisation. But they
said some of the details reported in the media differed from those in
WHO reports. They declined to go public, and said the research was
still inconclusive.
Sources
closely associated with WHO research said the organisation has in
fact made a recommendation to the Sri Lankan government to regulate
and standardise fertiliser and pesticide imports – the doctors’
main demand.
However,
another report, published just one day after the study’s release,
dismissed heavy metals as the main cause.
The
report, “Environmental Contamination and Its Association with
Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology in North Central Region of
Sri Lanka”, released by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and
Environment (CSE), identifies poor water quality as the main reason
for kidney failure in that region.
The
report says: “Heavy metals in drinking water are not related to
chronic kidney disease in Sri Lanka. If heavy metal is responsible,
then there is a different source for it than drinking water, and that
should be explored.”
CSE
deputy director Chandra Bushan told IPS “The problem is with the
quality of the groundwater. It is contaminated due to geological and
environmental reasons.”
But,
he said, if fertilisers and pesticides were the main cause, then the
disease should also be visible in other agricultural areas of the
country with equally heavy use.
The
CSE report also found that dug wells and tube wells were much more
dangerous than natural springs.
The
report stated that “The affected area covers approximately 17,000
square km, with a population of about 2.5 million, in which more than
95 percent live in rural areas.”
Citing
the main hospital in the North Central Anuradhapura District, the
report said that in 2010 there was “a 227 percent increase in live
discharge patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease, whereas the
death rate increased by 354 percent during the last few years.”
According
to the numbers cited by the CSE report, which was released in
Anuradhapura, more than 10 percent of the island’s population of
nearly 21 million lives in these high-risk areas.
The
regions most in danger are the north-central, eastern, southeastern
and central, as well as parts of the northern provinces – Sri
Lanka’s main agricultural production areas.
Despite
the different conclusions reached by the two reports, researchers
involved in each study acknowledged that the issues raised by the
other were significant.
“We
have always said that fertiliser and pesticide use should be
regulated,” CSE’s Bushan said.
“There
is no question that the water quality is bad, we agree with that,”
said Jayasumana, whose research was cited in the CSE report as well.
Both
studies also called for immediate action to stem the spread of kidney
disease.
The
statistics show that male farmers, who spend much of their time
outdoors in the fields, are struck down most often.
The
CSE report says it is male farmers between the ages of 30 and 60 who
are at highest risk.
And
the Sri Lankan research shows that at least 15 percent of men between
the ages of 15 and 70 were affected in the north-central and
southeastern provinces. “Men over the age of 40 years, who have
been engaged in farming for more than 10 years, are at higher risk of
developing this disease,” it states.
But
despite the clear danger for men in the high-risk age bracket,
especially those engaged in agriculture, options are few and far
between.
“What
to do? We have to use fertiliser and pesticide if we want to get a
good harvest, we have to drink the water if we don’t want to die of
thirst. No one has told us what to do and what not to do,” said
Karunarathne Gamage, who lives in the country’s North Central
province.
Bushan
said the CSE study also emphasised the poor quality of medical
services available in the region. One session of dialysis costs the
Sri Lankan government around 90 dollars, and most regional hospitals
lack staff and facilities to carry out such procedures regularly.
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