Chemical Pollution.....blood Toxins

[chuchok]

I agree vic, I have always felt CM residents should address the problem of their dogs burning plastic garbage. To be fair, it's not a completely canine problem, the cats smoke too much as well.

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Yes, but only catnip and they don't inhale.

[p1p]

Mine inhales

[Judge]

Just met a guy today who is a vegetarian and organic food nut and just did a 40 day fast drinking only filtered water. He just got a heavy metals test from the clinic on Loi Kroh road and had a very high cadmium count.

He is very upset because he has been paying top dollar for "organic" food and feels that he shouldn't have the same problems as the "pork eating, beer-swilling riff-raff".

[meadish_sweetball]

Where was the water from - and would the filtering process eliminate heavy metals - maybe it was the fasting itself that raised his heavy metal levels?

As for good veggie restaurants around Tha Phae Gate, there are none. Well, you can try the dinner buffet at Gap's house, which is decent provided you like coconut milk-based curries. I havent been there for 7 months or so though. It's on Thanon Rachadamnoen in the soi opposite the main AUA building, and they are only open between 18.00 and 21.00 if I am not completely mistaken.

Good veggie food is available at Khun Chern on Thanon Nimmanhemin, The Vegetarian Society on the right hand side of the road towards the airport from the moat, as well as a few scattered places around the old city . Look for signs saying เจ.

Aum sucks IMHO.

[Judge]

Where was the water from - and would the filtering process eliminate heavy metals - maybe it was the fasting itself that raised his heavy metal levels?

As for good veggie restaurants around Tha Phae Gate, there are none. Aum sucks.

Thanks for the reply.

I agree with you on Aum. Worst books, worst vegetarian food is what their advertising should say.

About the fasting yuppie. He used a reverse osmosis filter which is supposed to remove all heavy metals.

It would be interesting to know why his cadmium count was so high.

[stateman]

According to an article in yesterday's Nation more than 1,600 Chiang Mai residents were tested for toxins in the blood and 95% were found to have dangerously high concentrations.  What toxins exactly wasn't mentioned but more than likely herbicides and heavy metals. Anyone feel like a blood test? I wonder how many years it takes staying here to build up to a typical Thai person's blood toxin level?

In the same article it was stated that nearly all pork sold contains high levels of the salmonella virus as a result of the lax slaughtering process where faeces and meat are allowed to come in contact.

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anyone got stats on cancer, birth defect rates?

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bakachan,

I did some research for you on the CM gov website. All numbers below are for 2003 which is the latest year they publish.

Don’t see the exact items you asked for, but found the “death rate of mother and baby to be 112 persons per 1.6million population. The same table computed the numbers to 6.99 per thousand, which apprently is in error. My calc shows .07 deaths per thousand. [just stats and numbers! ].

source: http://e.chiangmai.go.th/45manage/main_page_display.php

They didn’t list birth defect per se, but they do have an entry under “side effect during pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum”. I imagine birth defect might be included therein. The number is 6205 cases in 2003.

For cancer:

All types of cancers 264 deaths in 2003, ranking 3rd after Heart-related deaths and AIDS (415, 395 respectively). This should give pause to anyone intrested in easy sex!

Source: http://e.chiangmai.go.th/45manage/view_detail45.php?tid=179

Interestingly, cancer was not listed as one of the top 10 illness on CM! Not clear if it is lumped together under other categories.

Source: http://e.chiangmai.go.th/45manage/view_detail45.php?tid=18

They also offered the phone number 0-5321-1048 ext 120 at CM Public Health Bereau, and the person’s name: Seega Jittapirom. You can try give them a call.

Hope this help.

[stateman]

Problem with "organic" produce in Chiang Mai is that almost every watershed area is severely polluted with pesticide. The hilltribes grow their flowers on the high hills. These utilise huge amounts of pesticide and that enters the water for everybody downstream. There is almost no "clean" water in CM province.

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I think it is diluted to undetectable levels by the time it hits the lowlands....am I wrong?

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Unfortunately this is most likely wishful thinking. I have experienced directly the severe poisoning of the water supply in farming communities in the US.

Does anyone here have any connections with the ag departments at CMU or MJU? They both have had strong interest in the past in the whole pesticide/herbicide issue. It would be interesting to know if they have conducted any tests for chemical contamination on the general water supply that farms tap into and also on produce grown without the chemicals, but potentially exposed to indirect contaminants to see what the contamination levels are. It might be a real eye opener.

I know at CMU they had a good sized program encouraging local farmers to be pesticide and herbicide free and it was spearheaded by the department chairman. If they have not conducted such tests already they might be very keen to do so if they were made aware of the possible magnitude of the problem.

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i recalled reading the public water supply department's claim that more district/village water supply are up to standard. at the same time there were still lots of water supply not meeting standard. my impression at the time of reading was - don't trust the tab water!

[stateman]

Both CMU and Maejo are actively involved in testing water etc.

I looked into this in some depth about eight years ago, as I was looking for land on which to start organic farming. After testing samples from many areas, from north of Chiang Rai to south of Hot, we found only one clean piece of land with a water supply which would pass relevant UK requirements to be classed as organic. That was near Ampur Mae Wang and the owner there had complete control of the entire watershed area, and had kept it chemical free for 45+ years.

Every other piece of land, highland or lowland, and water supply, whether from river, stream or artesian supply, was too contaminated to pass.

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A great shame....

I am surprised that this has not been brought to the attention of the King. From what I understand he is very proactively eco oriented.

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I recall reading that some authorities were attempting that, but that it wasnt easy.

my impression was it was of the category "too little - too late" and 'ain't gonna work".

[stateman]

No offense, but since there is no data of any kind here this will in my book go down as just one more unsubstantiated rumor....I was really hoping that you would come up with something.

So the good land was over 500,000 baht per rai....seems kind of steep....especially for such a large parcel.

Its difficult for me to believe that all the water in the north is so polluted that it would keep a farmer from meeting UK standards....from a few flowers being grown in the hills.

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chownah,

Check out some facility they have:

Environmental Research Laboratory CMU

http://www.science.cmu.ac.th/research-work...3/lab-chem2.htm

lotsa academia names in there.

If you want to contact someone,

start with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nikorn Mungkorntong (รองศาสตราจารย์ ดร.นิกร มังกรทอง)

who is the Deputy Dean for Research and International Relations.

Phone no. for CMU Faculty of Scienc is 0-5322-2180

source: http://mis.science.cmu.ac.th/public/thai/e...ive_mis_frm.php

Agri dept in chiangmai supporting agri:

http://ndoae.doae.go.th/under.html

http://aopdh07.doae.go.th specifically assist farmers on farming. They are located in Tumbon Cherngdoi, Amhpur Doisaket, CM.

Phone no. 0-5393-9404

As to water pollution, I read recently during my reseach for water quality in the north. Yes, I did find that the water pollution was very bad. Kwang river was very bad [i.e. thru Doisaket, Sankampaeng and to Lumphun].

Source: http://pcdv1.pcd.go.th/WaterQuality/handbk/manualGEC2.html and others.

I don't remember offhand the quality for Ping river - but shouldn't be much different. The

Pollution Control Department website should have more info about other water issues.

Hope this help.

[stateman]

Found my notes on water pollution. Some info below:

http://iwis.pcd.go.th/IWIS/report/rep_region.php?region_id=1

has a report on the quality of various rivers in the north, including the ones running thru CM.

Table shoes water quality tested in 2005 meastured in DO, BOD, TCB, FCB, NH3 and summary.

Of interest, in summary, River Kwang water was deteriorated (my interpretation – pretty bad). River Ping was ok.

PCD (Pollution Control Department) determined water quality based on 1. physical (colloidal, color, smell, taste, mrukiness, electricity conductivity, temp., etc.) 2. chemical (acidity, alkalinity, hardness, oxygen in water, carbon dioxide, nitrates (NO2 and NO3), ammonia, phosphates and need for oxigen (BOD).

BOD=need for oxigen due to chloride, salinity, sulphates, pesticides, heavy metals, washing detergents, chrolophyll, etc. 3. biological (plankton, bacteria, algae and germs).

Source: http://www.dnp.go.th/Research/watershade/qullity.html

[chownah]

Found my notes on water pollution. Some info below:

http://iwis.pcd.go.th/IWIS/report/rep_region.php?region_id=1

has a report on the quality of various rivers in the north, including the ones running thru CM.

Table shoes water quality tested in 2005 meastured in DO, BOD, TCB, FCB, NH3 and summary.

Of interest, in summary, River Kwang water was deteriorated (my interpretation – pretty bad).  River Ping was ok.

PCD (Pollution Control Department) determined water quality based on 1. physical (colloidal, color, smell, taste, mrukiness, electricity conductivity, temp., etc.)  2. chemical (acidity, alkalinity, hardness, oxygen in water, carbon dioxide, nitrates (NO2 and NO3), ammonia, phosphates and need for oxigen (BOD).

BOD=need for oxigen due to chloride, salinity, sulphates, pesticides, heavy metals, washing detergents, chrolophyll, etc.  3. biological (plankton, bacteria, algae and germs).

Source:  http://www.dnp.go.th/Research/watershade/qullity.html

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BOD = Biological Oxygen Demand.

BOD is the amount of oxygen that must be supplied so that micro organisms can break down organic matter in the water.....it is an indirect measure of the amount of decomposable organic matter in the water....it has nothing to do with chloride, salinity, sulphates, pesticides, or heavy metals. A BOD test is run to find out how much decomposable organic material is in the water. I'm sure you could find alot of stuff on the internet about BOD that would verify what I have said. We learned about BOD in engineering school when we learned about designing water treatment plants.