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Leading to death
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Watch out. That turmeric powder you unsuspectingly use in your cooking may contain a slow and steady poison
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— Photo: Mohammed Yousuf
On entering the body, lead accumulates in bones, teeth, nails, and hair.
THE GANESHA festival spread is settled in your tummy. And you are on your way in your car to immerse the idol into one of the city's not-yet-dead lakes. You might, however, want to stop and think about how much lead you would be letting loose into the lake in the process of immersing the idol. The idols we immerse during pooja season have 68 per cent concentration of lead in their paint. The sambar and turmeric powder in your festive spread was too, perhaps, laced with lead.
This is a vicious circle. The lead from the idols contaminates the water bodies, and in turn, the milk from the cattle drinking this water and feeding on the fodder grown on lead-contaminated soil and water is also contaminated.
A couple of years ago, the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India (NRCLPI) at St. John's Hospital conducted a study to determine the level of lead in the environment in Bangalore, besides two other cities. It found the highest concentration of lead near battery recycling units and secondary smelters.
George Foundation, in association with St. John's Medical College, also conducted a study which found high concentrations of lead, often 20 to 30 times more than the limits set by WHO, in vegetables, milk, and meat supplied from the villages on the banks of the Vrishabhavati river. "We traced the source of contamination to the illegal battery recycling units and electronic industries in the area," says Thuppil Venkatesh, Director of NRCLPI and Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, St. John's Medical College.
Every day, we are breathing and absorbing lead. Says Dr. Venkatesh: "Food items such as turmeric powder and sambar powder have shown high concentration of lead in our laboratory tests due to adulterants used to enhance the weight and colour. Some of the cheaper quality cosmetics and hair dyes also have high concentration of lead."
Unfortunately, the toxicity has been grossly underestimated due to ignorance, a lack of awareness, or sheer negligence. But the truth remains that lead poisoning is rampant and remains one of the chief causes for fall in IQ levels of children, besides its other detrimental effects, says Dr. Venkatesh.
But lead contamination does not come from recycling alone. A high concentration is found in paints, traditional medicine, automobile emission, printing ink, to name a few.
Says Dr. Venkatesh: "There are no standards or guidelines specified for the paint industry in India. Because of this, you find paint with a high level of lead used in children's play areas and in pencils. In fact the yellow paint, used in school buses, has the highest concentration of lead followed by green."
Lead enters the body through inhalation, through continuous exposure at the work place, and by consuming of lead-contaminated substances. On entering the body, it accumulates in bones, teeth, nails, and hair. The accumulated lead does not degrade; it can hang in your blood for 21 days, and in bone for 30 to 35 years.
When there is acute exposure to lead, and the concentration levels very high, there is damage to the central nervous system and the kidneys. In the case of chronic exposure, where there is long-term low-dose poisoning, reproductive damage, besides foetal toxicity has been observed. Some amount of lead is eliminated from the body through urine and stools, though the level of excretion is dependent on the nutritional status of the person.
What about treatment for lead poisoning? "It is 100 per cent treatable. But it is very expensive. Even in the U.S., it costs more than $1,000. The best remedy is prevention rather than cure," says Dr. Venkatesh.
NANDHINI SUNDAR
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