Vegetables and lead<\/p>\n
The Annual Marie Antoinette Award should go to Umar Fahmi
\nAchmadi for his \"Let them eat vegetables only once a week\"
\nstatement in response to the very disturbing news that lead is
\nshowing up in vegetables (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 3, 1994). Most
\nof the poor have only enough money to eat rice, noodles and
\nvegetables. So what are they going to have now as another source
\nof nutrition -- duck, prime rib? I hope he survives the laughter
\nfrom his colleagues at the Faculty of Nutrition.<\/p>\n
There is an alarming trend among the bureaucrats to bury their
\nheads in sand, and to not point fingers at offending agencies (in
\nthis case Pertamina), who have resolutely refused to get their
\nact together on the issue of lead free petrol. If anything,
\npeople should be encouraged to eat vegetables, just like those
\ngreen leafy ones that are happily sucking up all that lead. In
\nview of the alarming statistics on female anemia and maternal
\nmortality rates in Indonesia, it is even more imperative that
\nPertamina stops its obfuscation and brings itself into line with
\nthe international practices of other petroleum corporations.<\/p>\n
The other award for Fudging The Truth goes to R. J Larbey who
\nwas attributed in the same article with writing that lead in
\npetrol contributes little to body burdens compared to lead in
\nfood, and paint. I can only think that he studied ornithology as
\nthe environmental health data on lead are very clear. Few people,
\nno matter how poor, are fond of munching on red lead these days
\neven if they can get their hands on it, and lead in food comes
\nfrom where? Methinks this is a spurious argument. 80 percent of
\nlead in petrol is exhausted into the atmosphere while the
\nremainder stays in the oil and engine filtering system. The
\nexhausted lead is in the form of halides, oxyhalides and salts.
\nWhile most of it tends to fall within a short distance of the
\nroad (particularly into kampongs that lie below the toll roads or
\noverpasses) a considerable amount remains airborne for longer
\nperiods. It is this that is both inhaled by people and absorbed
\nby plants.<\/p>\n
Lead intoxication is not to be dealt with lightly. It effects
\nboth the neurological system and the blood forming portions of
\nthe bones and the kidneys. Thus it results in adult anemia, and
\nin extreme cases, kidney disfunction. Thus, lead poisoning
\ncompounds nutritional anemia already in existence in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
But then I forget that Indonesia is the country that has no
\nhazardous chlorine gas leaks and no cancer causing asbestos and
\nforests of trees that are only visible to the chosen few...so who
\nknows!<\/p>\n
I have further information that Pertamina does indeed produce
\nand sell unleaded petrol to Singapore. You may be interested in
\nfinding out why it's OK to poison Indonesians but not
\nSingaporeans, (but I guess we got them back with the smoke haze).
\nIs it because Indonesia doesn't have a well informed populace
\n(most of the technical data is only available in English) or
\nbecause of the learned passivity\/fear of the people...again who
\nknows.<\/p>\n
MELODY KEMP<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/vegetables-and-lead-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }