Asia Times: Thais pay the price for lax radioactive safeguards


	May 27, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Thais pay the price for lax radioactive safeguards
By Teena Amrit Gill

BANGKOK - When scrap dealer Jitsen Chansakha wrenched open a discarded canister in a scrapyard in outer Bangkok in February, he triggered Thailand's worst nuclear accident.

Jitsen did not know that the canister contained radioactive cobalt-60 and had once been used in a radiotherapy machine for treating cancer patients. His fingers were permanently damaged. One finger which has since become gangrenous has to be amputated.

The incident has brought to light the lack of concern and safety regulations regarding the use of imported radioactive substances such as cobalt-60 in the country, say social critics and labor activists.

Months later, no one is willing to take responsibility for the accident, and the medical establishment is unprepared to deal with such a disaster. The secretiveness of officials in concealing the extent of the damage not only highlights their own culpability in this case, but also in numerous other such ''accidents'' caused by Thailand's rapid industrial development.

The worst ones include a massive explosion of hazardous chemicals at densely populated Klong Toey harbor in 1991, and the death by fire of close to 200 workers, mostly women, in the Kader toy factory. They were locked inside the sub-standard sweatshop.

Even the cobalt-60 incident is not the first of its kind. The used canisters were first stolen from the carpark of their owner, the Kamol Sukosol Electrics company, and then supposedly sold to scrap merchants, including Jitsen, who in turn sold them to a scrap yard in Samut Prakan in outer Bangkok.

According to Dr Warunee Chinarat of Ratchavithi Hospital, where those exposed to the cobalt-60 radiation leak are being treated, Thailand has had a total of 136 ''non-fatal'' radiation accidents, 60 of which involved cobalt. In fact, the Samut Prakan accident, involving both leakage of radiation and contamination, is the 29th such incident in Thailand.

''The Ministry of Public Health has kept this whole incident secretive,'' says Ida Arunwong, from the Alternative Energy Project in Bangkok. ''Supposedly because they don't want people to panic. So those in the community where the incident happened don't even know if they are victims.''

So far, the ministry has only admitted that 35 people have been exposed to the radiation and have low white blood cell counts, one of the most immediate impacts of exposure to cobalt-60. But the numbers of those affected, say health experts, could be closer to several thousand. Already three people have died as a result of the incident and four of those who had direct contact with the canisters may need to have either hands or legs amputated because of gangrene.

Dr Oraphan Methadilokkul, head of the Office of Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine at Ratchavithi Hospital, says that focusing on white blood cell counts is not enough to know the real health impact of a disaster like this.

''The number of affected people could be several thousand,'' she said. ''The Public Health Ministry should tell the public the truth.'' She adds that there is in fact no known cure for those suffering from radiation, as the ministry claims, and all that doctors can do is reduce the severity of their conditions.

A health ministry official admitted that the country is ill-prepared to deal with such a disaster. ''We lack the instruments and experience to deal with medical problems caused by radioactive accidents,'' said Dr Amphol Jindawattana, a ministry spokesman and director of the Public Health Reform Institute, at a seminar organized by the Thai Journalists' Association in Bangkok.

The question which begs to be asked, argue critics, is why is Thailand importing highly dangerous materials such as cobalt-60 and radium, when the medical community is unable to deal with the consequences of accidents and safety measures and controls are far from adequate.

Around 500 businesses and government organizations are registered to import cobalt-60. The substance is usually used in iron and food processing industries, cement factories, and in hospitals. The gamma rays it produces have high penetrative powers and can be used to detect the thickness of iron products, treat cancer patients and kill bacteria such as salmonella in a wide variety of meats and other food.

But the Office of Atomic Energy for Peace (OAEP), the agency solely responsible for importing cobalt-60 - as it was subsequently found - did not even know which companies and hospitals were using cobalt-60 and other radioactive materials. ''The problem with the OAEP is that its role is contradictory,'' said Ida. ''On the one hand it aims to promote the use of radiation for commercial purposes, and on the other hand it is meant to monitor and control these substances. If it is too strict it will not be able to promote the use of these materials,'' she said.

Critics argue that the OAEP has taken its promotional role far too seriously, without concern for educating the public about the possible adverse effects of nuclear materials. And since it is the only organization responsible for dealing with radioactive substances and their use, there is no other source of information, or warning.

At a seminar held at the Ministry of Science soon after the leak, more than 100 users of radioactive materials said that unacceptable control systems had in fact existed for decades. Doctors pointed out that their hospitals had stopped using radium because it had a long half-life and there was no safe place for storage. With cobalt-60, there was a problem with safe disposal.

''This kind of an accident comes as no surprise to me,'' says Dr Vorawidh Charoenloet, a labor economist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. ''The government does not see this as being its own responsibility or that of the company involved.'' Vorawidh, along with other labor activists, trade unions and workers, are lobbying for the creation of an independent Occupational Health and Safety Institute, without which they say accidents such as the cobalt radiation leak will continue to occur.

''This will undoubtedly be very difficult to form,'' he says, ''because the government will have to share power with the people. Ultimately it boils down to a question of power relations, and it is always difficult to give up power.''

(Inter Press Service)

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