How economics can be the enemy of health care
A report published in The Lancet for 18 March reveals a singularly grim aspect of the way in which industry, in the interest of its own economic health, can limit the ability of a population to pursue improvements in standards of human health.
When an occupational health expert from the US visited the Peruvian mining town
of La Oroya 3,700m up in the Andes to take blood and urine samples from residents,
he was faced by hecklers throwing eggs and leaflets opposing his research. The
opposition is believed to have been organised by supporters of the town’s
major employer, a massive smelting complex, who feared that adverse findings
might bring about closure.
Despite the opposition, the visiting team was able to confirm earlier findings
of high levels of lead in the blood. They also found high blood levels of arsenic,
cadmium, mercury, antimony, caesium and thallium, not only in local citizens
but also in a control group living 80km away. In children in particular lead
levels exceeded even those found in US adults who work with lead. In La Oroya,
nearly all children younger than six, and many older children and adults, have
shown blood levels of lead exceeding the World Health Organization limit of 10µg/dl.
In the latest study tests were made for 14 different metals in blood and urine,
and also in dust and paint samples from participants’ homes.
Faced with the team’s findings, the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention concluded that “without reduction of air emissions and remediation
of soil, home hygiene and clean neighbourhood campaigns are of little value in
decreasing blood lead levels”. It called for an integrated intervention
plan to reduce exposure to industrial contaminants in La Oroya.
However, it is recognised that the town’s economy is dependent upon the
US-owned smelting business and the companies that do business with it. When attempts
are made for improvement, activists claim to have been harassed by insults and
even death threats, and parents worried about their children’s health are
reluctant to raise their voices. Doctors at the town’s hospital have been
discouraged from diagnosing lead poisoning. Moreover, the other toxic metals
may increase the lead menace. It is indeed a tricky situation.
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Pharmaceutical Journal
A comment by Nick Palmer of the UK Parliament’s all-party Animal Welfare Group, published in the 25 March issue of New Scientist, condemns the annual slaughter of some 300,000 pups of the harp seal by Canadian hunters. This
is
reported to be a brutal procedure involving head crushing, wounded pups being
skinned while still alive. Apart from this there are urgent climatic threats
to be taken into account.