Pollutants Hitting Thailand's Public Hard - Toxic Chemicals Seen as Source of Problems by Phairath Khampha 16 November 2001 Heavy metals and pollutants released into the environment have caused widespread health problems and genetic disorders among Thais, a public health expert said on NOvember 8, 2001. Cases of children with Down's syndrome, youngsters with development problems, and girls going through early puberty, were also on the rise. Corruption, indifference and protection of the interests of the country's economic and political elite have resulted in Thailand becoming dangerously polluted and increasingly large numbers of people suffering from infertility, miscarriages, breast and ovarian cancer, declining sperm counts, and testicular cancer as a result of the toxic materials in the environment. "The number of people suffering from infertility, miscarriages, breast and ovarian cancer, declining sperm counts, and testicular cancer is increasing," said Suwanna Varakamin, director of Family Planning and Population division of the Public Health Ministry. "These problems are related to exposure to toxic industrial chemicals," Mrs Suwanna told a seminar on the world's population. The United Nations' World Population Report 2001, launched at the seminar, says industrialisation had introduced almost 100,000 previously unknown chemicals to the environment since 1990. "One category, endocrine disrupters, is now suspected as an important cause of human reproductive disorders and infertility," the report said. Most chemicals had not been studied for their health effects. Some were banned in industrialised countries but continued to be used in developing countries where corrupt authorities were easy to influence to turn a blind eye. Thailand is one of the more corrupt countries in the world. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals include phthalates--used in plastic bags, soap, hair sprays, nail polish and cosmetics--and PCBs, a chemical used in electrical equipment. PCBs are still in common use in Thailand and many mechanics routinely use them as solvents to wash grease and tars off their hands. Power plants driven by oil, gas and coal were also threatening public health, said the report. Many countries still did not have the capacity to regulate these activities or respond to accidents. Chalermsak Wanichsombat, secretary-general of the Office of Environmental Policy and Planning, said that in a country like Thailand, the benefits of coal-fired technology to the owners of factories and important businessmen might outweigh the adverse effects to the general public. He believed Thailand had the technology to handle the potential environmental impact of coal-fired power plants, but businessmen, including those from developed countries such as the United States were loathe to make the necessary, but expensive modifications. Toxic alert sounded High levels of toxic contamination have been found in the canal running through the Bangpoo Industrial Estate to the Gulf of Thailand, a study by Greenpeace Southeast Asia found. The contamination including eight types of cancer-causing organochlorine substances and 10 types of heavy metal – was found in soil sediment under the riverbed of Klong Hua Lampoo in the Bangplee Mai area. Greenpeace took water and soil samples in June 2000, sending them to a laboratory at the UK’s University of Exeter for independent testing. The results were released in November. “The discovery is frightening as such high contamination could harm human health and the marine ecosystem. Unfortunately, Thailand has no environmental standard for sediment but only for water,” said Greenpeace toxic specialist Thara Buakhamsri. “Even though the contamination level in the water sample is below the environmental standard, the sediment’s contamination is very high. That reflects a critical problem,” he said. Thara called on the government to take urgent action to solve the problem, particularly to force the more than 6,000 factories in the area (237 factories are in an industrial estate area) to be more strict with their wastewater management. But corrupt offivials in Thailand will always turn a blind eye to the companies' practices because they are paid large sums of money to not enforce legislated environmental standards in the country. He said the gigantic Klong Dan waste water treatment project would not be capable of solving the problem, as it was not designed for treating chemical pollution in wastewater, only organic material. In fact the Klong Dan project might cause more pollution problems.Of the eight organochlorines found, Thara said two were serious pollutants: dichloro benzene and hexachloro benzene (HCB). In animal experiments, HCB has been seen to cause liver damage, skin lesions, neurological damage, and cancer. In humans, HCB had adverse effects on reproduction and could damage the immune system.The 10 heavy metal substances found in the sediment included arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel and zinc. Most of them were found at extremely high levels, for example copper levels at 2 to 96 times higher than normal levels in general unpolluted soil, Thara said. Scientifically, the high contamination of heavy metals could affect marine life in the area as the metals would collect in marine plant and animals, many of which are eaten by Thais, often too ignorant to know any better. Greenpeace put three ‘toxic hotspot’ signs at the contamination area, surrounded by groups of media and local villagers. Local resident Nattaya Binuma said the villagers had suffered from polluted water for decades. They had complained several times to the estate but no measures had been taken. “They only sent us chemical containers for collecting household garbage and hired some workers to collect garbage out of the Hua Lampoo canal,” she said. Greenpeace in November also collected another soil sediment sample from the seabed at the Bangpakong River’s mouth to the Gulf of Thailand. The spot had been reported by local environment protection officers recently as the most serious toxic contamination area.