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Story and Photos: Vanchai Tan
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"I lost my daughter some six to seven years ago. Her name was Maisaria; she was 12 years old then. Her whole body was swollen. She went to the hospital and the doctor told her she was swelling on account of her liver disease. I spent all of my money - seven thousand baht - on trying to heal her, but the doctor wasn't able to help. I took her to a traditional herbalist to treat her illness with herbs, but it was no use. She finally died at the hospital after being sick continuously for three years, her body completely swollen..."
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"I lost my first child some eight years ago. My child was born and looked strong. But after a short while, my child turned green. I rushed to the doctor, who said the baby lacked oxygen. My child lived for seven days and died... Three years ago my second child was being born and died midway. The head was swollen so much it was stuck and we had to operate to remove the baby. The doctor told us the baby was just born physically deformed..." |
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People can take in lead through food, water and even by breathing it in. When the lead enters the body, it will permeate through the blood, and be partly excreted out in the urine. But if you have too much lead in your body, your body cannot expel enough of it, and the remainder builds up in the bones. When it permeates the nerve cells and the brain, it leads to severe lead poisoning. Symptoms of lead poisoning are aching muscles and joints, bad memory, slow thinking, lethargy, impotency in males and females, a disturbed digestive system, including malfunctioning of the liver and kidney, causing major swelling to occur... |
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In 1998, when news of the problem reached newspaper headlines, the villagers of Klitty protested to various government agencies. A press release soon followed claiming to have taken care of the problem - the government agencies claimed to have shut down the mining factory, cleaned up the creek and begun monitoring the villagers' health... but what has really followed since then are more stories of sudden deaths and little monitoring of the Karen villagers. Worse, the Ministry of Health has declared that the deaths can not be formally linked to lead poisoning, yet refuse to do any formal testing themselves. |
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