Thailand and the perils of lead

For 16 years, the Thai government has ignored the plight of a community where toxic lead mine waste is causing severe chronic poisoning – defying both a 2013 court order, and its international obligations. It is just one of many toxic sites across Thailand that need to be cleaned up – but the government’s main concern is to encourage further industrialisation.

The Thai government has failed to clean up toxic lead in a stream in western Thailand, threatening hundreds of families with serious and irreversible health problems, says a new report from Human Rights Watch. A Supreme Administrative Court’s order from nearly two years ago to clean up Klity Creek, has been ignored by the government, while villagers remain exposed to lead in water, soil, vegetables, and fish.

The report, ‘Toxic Water, Tainted Justice’ by Human Rights Watch, describes 16 years of failure by Thailand’s Pollution Control Department and public health authorities to prevent further exposure to lead among the village’s ethnic Karen residents, and highlights serious health and environmental damage caused by a now-defunct lead processing factory.

Despite the village’s idyllic setting, many residents of Lower Klity Creek suffer the symptoms of chronic lead poisoning, such as abdominal pain, headaches, fatigue, and mood changes. Some children have been born with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“The Thai authorities apparently believe they can ignore a clear court order to clean up the toxic site,” said Richard Pearshouse, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “This is one of the most heavily polluted industrial sites in all of Thailand, hundreds of people suffer harm, and it needs immediate government action.”
On January 10, 2013, Thailand’s highest administrative court ordered the government to clean up toxic lead in the creek until test results from the water, soil, vegetables, and aquatic animals in and around the creek fall below permissible levels. Although clean-up activities should have begun by May 1, 2014, Thailand’s Pollution Control Department says it is “still studying” how to clean up the creek.

Lower Klity Creek villagers may be exposed to lead in their daily lives – by drinking water or eating fish and other aquatic animals, by eating food grown in lead-contaminated plots or cooked in lead-contaminated water, by contact with polluted soil around their houses, or breathing air contaminated by lead dust. The Pollution Control Department’s environmental tests found unacceptably high levels of lead in soil along the creek bank, as well as in the water and creek sediment, and contaminating fish, shrimp, crabs, and vegetables at various locations along the creek.

More lead mines on the way?

Despite this catastrophe, in 2011, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment commissioned an environmental assessment of lead mines in Kanchanaburi province, raising the possibility of Thailand reopening and further developing lead mining and the lead industry.

“The Thai government seems to be ignoring the lessons from the pollution of Klity Creek and the poisoning of villagers,” Richard said. “Thailand should clean up Klity Creek and provide medical care to affected villagers before even thinking of expanding lead mining.”
The response by provincial and district public health authorities to the situation has been wholly inadequate, Human Rights Watch said. Many village residents who were tested did not receive the results of their blood tests. Others were told the lead levels in their blood were “safe” despite international guidance that there is no safe level of lead exposure. Children who had elevated lead levels did not receive follow-up medical care. Many villagers told Human Rights Watch that public health authorities simply stopped performing local blood tests for lead by 2008.

Lead is highly toxic and can interrupt the body’s neurological, biological, and cognitive functions. The ingestion of high levels of lead can cause brain, liver, kidney, nerve, and stomach damage as well as anaemia, comas, convulsions and even death. Children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible, and high levels of lead exposure can cause permanent intellectual and developmental disabilities, including reading and learning disabilities, behavioural problems, attention problems, as well as hearing loss and disruption in the development of visual and motor functioning.

As a result of increasing industrialisation and mineral extraction, Thailand faces rising concerns about health impacts from pollution in numerous sites around the country. These include Na Nong Bong in Loei province (cyanide, mercury and arsenic), Mao Tao in Tak province (cadmium), Pitchit province (manganese and arsenic), and near the Map Tha Phut industrial area in Rayong province (industrial chemicals).

Thailand has ratified core international human rights conventions and a range of environmental treaties. These place obligations on governments to protect the environment, safe drinking water, and the health of its citizens, with a special emphasis on children and other vulnerable groups, including women, people with disabilities, and indigenous people.

Thailand’s National Health Act also provides that everyone has the right to a healthy environment. In international law, the rights to the highest attainable standard of health and to water also entail the right to an effective remedy for violations of these rights.
“The Thai government needs to stop ignoring the court order and set out a clear, defined plan with a specific timeline to comply,” Richard said. “A thorough clean-up of Klity Creek could help Thailand create a model for cleaning up the many places where extreme industrial pollution damages human health.”