Traces of lead found in some city vegetables

Traces of lead found in some city vegetables

JAKARTA (JP): Jakartans may want to reconsider eating
vegetables daily because of the lead content found in some of the
city's farming areas.

"Just eat vegetables once a week," said Umar Fahmi Achmadi of
the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia on Monday.

Achmadi, citing results of a study last year of vegetables
grown in North Jakarta, said the three-month study of spinach,
caisim and kangkung grown by individual farmers on roadside plots
found traces of lead from vehicle emissions.

Achmadi was a speaker at Monday's one-day workshop on
chemicals in the environment, held by the British Council, the
British Department of Trade and Industry and the University's
Center for Research of Human Resources and the Environment.

But former head of the city's Urban Environment Research
Office, Eko Budirahardjo, assured that vegetable intake need not
be reduced.

"As long as we pick vegetables which are good in color and
shape, and as long as we only consume the leaves, the risk of
lead consumption is low," said Budirahardjo.

His office conducted research from 1992 to 1993 with the Bogor
Institute of Agriculture, watering vegetables with water
containing lead and other chemicals.

"We could see that the vegetables affected were smaller in
size and darker in color," Budirahardjo said.

Junani, a staff member of the Research Office, said vegetables
grown at a distance of 75 meters from roads were found to contain
a low lead content. Budirahardjo said factors like wind and
sunlight must also be taken into account.

Achmadi noted that the Sundanese ethnic group of West Java may
be at a higher risk of lead consumption as they eat their
vegetables raw.

Urban risk

Exposure to lead through consuming vegetables is just one risk
to urbanites, who Achmadi said face much higher exposure to
pollutants compared to those who live in rural areas.

Blood tests conducted by his team in 1990 on school children,
slum dwellers, motorbike taxi drivers and food vendors showed a
high lead content, all above the acceptable local level of 0.030
milligrams per 100 cubic centimeters of blood. Europe applies a
stricter 0.020 mg per 100 cc of blood, Achmadi said.

He noted that "Studies in other countries such as Australia
and Mexico have found links between higher lead content in blood
and decreasing levels of intelligence in children."

With adults, the effect of lead attacking the central nervous
system over a number of years results in high blood pressure and
anemia.

The deputy for Development, Environmental Impact Management
Agency, Bapedal, expressed concern about the effect of pollutants
on future generations.

"Our concern is due to an increase of urban dwellers, and
because we will have more cities," said P.L. Coutrier.

Other experts mentioned the inevitability of pollutants in
urban food chains but played down fears.

A representative of the British Associated Octel Company Ltd,
a large manufacturer and marketer of transport fuel additives
said lead "reduces energy consumption in both the refinery and
the car..." R.J. Larbey also wrote that gasoline lead, compared
to food, water and lead-based paint, "is a minor contributor to
the body's burden even though it is the major component of lead
in air."

The workshop in the University grounds in Salemba, Central
Jakarta, was attended by around 100 participants, addressed among
others by British envoy to Indonesia, Graham Burton CMG. (anr)