Plight of child workers facing cocktail of toxic chemicals exposed by report

Children as young as eight, working in the tanneries of Bangladesh producing leather that is in demand across Europe and the USA, are exposed to toxic chemical cocktails that are likely to shorten their lives, according to a new report.

Approximately 90% of those who live and work in the overcrowded urban slums of Hazaribagh and Kamrangirchar, where hazardous chemicals are discharged into the air, streets and river, die before they reach 50, according to the World Health Organisation.

Their plight spurred the volunteer doctors of Médicines Sans Frontières (MSF) to set up clinics in the area to diagnose and treat those who are the victims of their workplace. It is, says a paper published in BMJ Case Reports, “the first time they have intervened in an area for reasons other than natural disasters or war”.

MSF’s intervention was triggered by “the widespread industrial negligence and apathy of owners of tanneries and other hazardous material factories” towards the more than 600,000 largely migrant population who have no access to government-funded healthcare.

MSF set up and ran four main clinics for 5,000 workers in 2015, located in the centre of communities involved in four different manufacturing processes at factories for tanning, plastics recycling, garment-making and metals.

The hazards of the 250 or so tanneries in Hazaribagh – which are 30 to 35 years old and discharge 6,000 cubic metres of toxic effluent and 10 tonnes of solid waste every day – are best known. In 2012, Human Rights Watch produced a report called “Toxic Tanneries” which revealed the flouting of Bangladesh’s own laws as well as international law in the employment of children under 18 in work that is harmful or hazardous.

The factories douse animal skins in cauldrons of chemicals as part of the processing of “Bengali black” leather, which is exported to European leather goods manufacturers in Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

“Apart from heavy metals like chromium, cadmium, lead and mercury, a conglomerate of chemicals are discharged by the tanneries into the environment,” says the paper. “Workers aged eight and older are soaked to the skin, breathing the fumes for most of the day and eat and live in these surroundings throughout the year. Personal protective equipment [is] not provided.”

Child workers clad in no more than loin cloths and wellington boots are exposed to chemicals including formaldehyde, hydrogen sulphide and sulphuric acid, write Venkiteswaran Muralidhar, associate professor at the Sri Balaji Medical college in Chennai, and colleagues.

The other factories– for plastics recycling, garments and metals – are in Kamrangirchar, an urban slum which is not officially part of Dhaka city. “In these, there are complex risk hazards from cotton dust, heavy metals and chemicals like mercury, phthalates, acids and dioxins and ergonomic hazards,” says the paper.

Chronic skin and lung diseases are common, say the authors. Within six months of the setting up of the clinics, 3,200 of the 5,000 eligible workers had come forward for at least one consultation. Among them, 468 (14.6%) were diagnosed with suspected work-related diseases, and 30 (0.9%) had work-related injuries.

The figures do not reflect the overall harm to the population, however, said Muralidhar. Those who are severely injured by chemicals or accidents would not go to one of the clinics. “They will probably be taken by rickshaw to a hospital in Dhaka,” he told the Guardian. And the clinics were only open four days a week, during the daytime, and workers needed the owner’s permission to go for a consultation.

He feels strongly that a hospital should be set up in the slum to help its people. “They are the most horrible conditions you can imagine,” he told the Guardian. “I work in this area. I have never seen anything as bad as this.”

Plight of child workers facing cocktail of toxic chemicals exposed by report

French youngsters exposed to dangerous cocktail of pesticides, campaigners say

The samples have been taken from childrenliving among 50 and 200 metres from agricultural zones. Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

French children in agricultural regions are currently being exposed to a dangerous cocktail of pesticides, some of them banned, a French overall health and setting group has claimed.

Générations Futures carried out independent evaluation of the hair of youthful people residing or studying near farms or vineyards right after dad and mom expressed concern about their children getting exposed to poisons that could disrupt their endocrine technique.

The group, a non-profit organisation specialising in the use and results of pesticides on people and the environment, says its findings confirmed their fears.

Researchers took hair samples from a selected group of young children aged amongst three and ten living or attending colleges among 50 and 200 metres from diverse agricultural zones. It sent the samples to an independent laboratory in Luxembourg that utilised methods equivalent to those employed by detectives investigating poisoning circumstances.

A complete of 624 pesticide traces were found in the 29 samples tested – 1 sample was deemed of insufficient quantity – suggesting that 80% of the children had been exposed to agricultural pesticides in the earlier three months.

In total, the laboratory found traces of 53 pesticides believed to influence hormone technique of mammals, major to cancerous tumours, birth defects, developmental problems and understanding disabilities in humans.

An regular of 21.52 different pesticides had been found for every single little one, 35 so-known as “endocrine disruptor” pesticides were discovered at least when, even though 13 had been identified in every hair sample. Just underneath three-quarters of the young children ate natural make routinely, suggesting the contamination came from an outside source and not their meals.

“The presence of much more than 21 pesticides, on regular, that are endocrine disruptors in the hair that was analysed demonstrates that our children are exposed to a considerable cocktail of these substances,” mentioned François Veillerette, a spokesperson for Générations Futures. “Now the European commission must ultimately public a clear and protective definition of the endocrine disruptors that have to be banned.”

The group’s report urges urgent action. “Our demand is easy and primarily based on an ambitious aim: no organism need to include endocrine disruptors in buy to protect the overall health of unborn children.”

Générations Futures says the French government’s very own nationwide method to deal with endocrine disruptors has reached a dead end. The program was initially to be published in 2013, but has been repeatedly postponed until the end of this month.

“Because young children are portion of the population specially vulnerable to the dangers of endocrine disruptors, they must not be exposed to them,” it stated.

The study showed that many young children had been exposed to dangerous chemicals banned in agricultural use but still utilised in parasite therapies for pet animals.

Jean-Charles Bocquet, director of the European Association of Plant Safety Product Manufacturers, dismissed the analysis. “The presence of pesticide traces is not automatically indicative of a well being danger, particularly in infinitely modest doses. I am confident you’d discover traces of diesel in our hair if you looked for it,” he informed Le Parisien.

Veillerette disagreed. “It is not the dose that the issue, but the accumulation of pesticides leading to a cocktail result,” he said.

Générations Futures says it has sent its findings to a specialised university analysis staff for further examination.

French youngsters exposed to dangerous cocktail of pesticides, campaigners say