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)