[Note from Elizabeth O'Brien]
I began
corresponding with Peter Wood after reading his submission on lead core wick candles to
the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and asked him whether lead core wicks or
lead core wick candles are manufactured, imported into or sold in South Africa or
neighbouring countries. He posted my message to the local occupational hygiene email
group. Peter also did some local research and then began sending some fascinating insights
into reasons for the unlikeliness of a successful ban on leaded petrol in South Africa.
Here are excerpts from his emails:- Candle making seems to be a very
popular pastime here. The local library has 8 titles on the subject in stock, including
some locally published books (in both English and Afrikaans), but all these books were
booked out.
There was a very large quantity
(around 1000) of decorative candles available at the [local homewares] outlet, in numerous
sizes and types. None of the candles was marked either with a country of origin, or with
details about the manufacturer. [About 5% of the candles were] very fancy boxed candles in
the shape of apples, lemons and other fruit which had wicks that appear to have a metal
core.
Anybody who is concerned about the
risks of lead absorption in South Africa, should also be concerned about the type of
petrol they themselves use. Premium petrol here contains (if I remember right - I was on
the SABS committee, but do not have the petrol Spec at hand) up to 4 grams of lead per
litre. Since lead-based decorative paints were phased out here, many years ago, the chief
source of lead in ambient air has been from the continued use of leaded petrol here.
Research by, amongst others, Professor Harald Annegarn as long ago as 1979 showed that
ambient lead levels in Johannesburg CBD increased markedly in the day, as cars entered the
city, and then declined at night. Further research by a doctor in Cape Town, Yvonne von
Shirndling (hope my spelling is right) some years ago on lead levels in the teeth of
children, related the levels to behavioural traits and international experience. This was
before unleaded petrol was introduced here; her work was one of the motivators for the
release of unleaded petrol [in 1995]. Unfortunately, unleaded petrol has not "taken
off" here, even though it was until recently priced at 4 cents less per litre than
leaded petrol (for petrol 2 octane units lower than leaded petrol.) Since the octane
rating of unleaded petrol was raised to that of leaded premium petrol 3 months ago, the
price of the unleaded fuel was increased to that of leaded petrol. Unleaded petrol can be
used by 95% of local vehicles, yet only about 5% of local motorists have so far
switched to unleaded petrol.
Anybody who is concerned about lead
absorption, and the risks it poses of especially developmental damage to young children,
needs to look both at the type of candles they and others use, as well at the type of
petrol they choose to use. We should be concerned about lead exposure from these sources,
because the people who are exposed to lead in ambient air have no choice in the matter,
and the exposure arises only because of the choices you and I make. We don't need to buy
candles with metallic wicks; and most local motorists have no reason to keep buying leaded
petrol. Furthermore, with both these sources of lead pollution, the risk of exposure does
not stop, once the candles are extinguished, or vehicle ignitions are switched off. The
volatilised lead in the air eventually settles out as inorganic lead compounds - chiefly
lead oxide - on all surfaces in the area. This settled lead is invisible, and no-one is
aware of potential exposure. Lead settles on clothing, curtains, utensils, cigarettes,
food, toys, infant's dummies, and all other objects. Lead exposure from leaded petrol or
lead-core wick candle use can therefore also occur around the clock, from eating food
(remember how many road-side vendors we have) or from chewing or licking any objects that
have been in the vicinity of leaded-core wick candles or close to vehicles and busy
traffic routes. Continued exposure by breathing can also occur whenever settled dust is
disturbed and once more becomes airborne, or whenever contaminated clothing or curtains
are disturbed.
I must tell you that I think it will
be difficult to raise the issue of the toxicity of lead here, because of the number of
other health issues that are getting media attention at present.
Possible lead poisoning is only one of
a number of health-related issues that are causing concerns here now. Most of the concerns
about poisoning (by a variety of substances) relate to exposure in the workplace, and to
substances other than lead. Several workers have died or suffered severe disablement as a
result of occupational exposure to asbestos, silica, chromates and mercury. (You
may have heard about the Thor Chemicals case, where a number of employees were poisoned by
mercury; mercury wastes were imported into the country, and widespread environmental
pollution was caused near the Thor Chemicals plant.). The major pollution topic in the
media here at present is about the effects of occupational and environmental exposure to
asbestos (the Cape PLC case.). Whole tracts of the country are contaminated with asbestos
mining tailings; rivers are contaminated; rural roads have been built with asbestos,
scores of communities are living in asbestos-contaminated areas, and it is probable that
hundreds if not thousands of people die annually from either asbestosis or mesothelioma.
(There are no accurate statistics, because many deaths occur among rural communities
without hospital or diagnostic services.). Numbers of people living near a large
state-owned steel mill have also been poisoned by underground water contaminated by
effluent from the steel mill; and near the historical gold mining town of Barberton,
arsenic entered the river (the only water supply for many villagers) because of pollution from
milling gold ore that contained arsenic. We have also had scares about radioactive
waste, resulting from the mining of uranium - radioactive elements deposited in the
scale that formed on pipes and tanks used for processing ore, tailing dumps and leachate
dumps were found to be radioactive, and several scrap metal dealers were found to be at
risk from metal contaminated with radioactivity.
These are just the pollution-related
issues of concern. There are many more issues regarding public health: the primary health
care system here is underfunded; and many people do not receive adequate care - the
infant
death rate is one of the highest in the world. There has been a resurgence in
malaria,
and low-lying areas of the country to the north are suffering an epidemic of malaria that
is resistant to chloroquine. Last week, 3 newly born babies were found dead, abandoned by
their mothers - although abortion has been legalised here for about 6 years, not everybody
knows who to contact; several clinics and hospitals that are listed as offering to
terminate unwanted pregnancies, refuse to take such cases because the staff have moral
objections to abortions. Whatever one's stance on abortion, it is clear that some mother's
see no solution except that of infanticide.
The major public health concern here
though is probably the incidence of HIV; in some areas 25% of the population is
infected; many children are born with HIV, and many are orphaned as a result of AIDS.
AZT and other drugs that inhibit development of HIV are not available under the state
health scheme, and are too expensive for anyone except about 0.5% of the population.
Editors will not publish a letter
concerning the risks of lead; from the perspective of the editors, they choose the items
that seem most relevant to their readers
because crime (highjacking, armed
robberies, rapes etc) are very emotive issues now
[and] unemployment is close
to 30%. I am involved with a coalition of local community groups who are involved in a
fight about dust and air pollution caused by a local gold mine, and
I have helped
organise protest meetings about dust pollution and have taken part in a march to activate
the local community.
Elizabeth O'Brien responded (in part)
with the following email:
My whole philosophy of the way things
work is that lead is the perfect model for toxics use reduction. The ban on leaded petrol
that is sweeping the world is often touted as the greatest success in public health in the
last fifteen years and conversely the wide scale sale of leaded petrol is thought to be the
greatest disaster for public health of the twentieth century.
Lead is the most studied toxic
substance and the one to appear uppermost on lists of priority toxics (eg lead is priority
"number one" for both the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
and for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [whose member
states are the top 24 developed countries in the world].
Lead has led the way in toxics use
reduction legislation throughout the world with the first ban on leaded paint at a height
accessible to children, placed by the Queensland (Australia) government in 1922.
Legislation banning leaded paint is still slowly making its way across the planet and in
its wake, legislation ensuring adequate management of the lead paint (that has already
been used) is a matter of constant vigilance for public health campaigners.
Yet we are told that lead control
legislation is still a model of public health practice. Can you imagine how slow
legislation and other controls on other toxics from the cradle to the grave, must be, to
make lead control look like a success story??
The mechanics of change in terms of public health policy appear to me to
be about raising an issue at the right time in the right place (maybe not South Africa
today but possibly South Africa tomorrow) and hitting critical mass. That is, your letter
to the editor would be far more likely to have been published had there been other items
on lead in the news or among the letters and if it was able to be linked to some other big
news story. For example, lead poisoning may well be an issue for the gold assayists at
your local gold mine and if you could get a local journalist interested in workers health
it is likely that blood lead tests are not occurring as frequently as they should. There
is an article that may inspire you, about a gold assayist who had arguably the worst case
of lead poisoning in the world. Denver toxicologist says former gold-mine employee of
Newmont Mining Corp "is probably one of the most acutely lead-poisoned people in the
world" at 250 µg/dL. The Denver Post article dated 25/4/00 can be found at
www.denverpost.com.
Peter Wood responded:
There is an additional socio-political
aspect to the leaded petrol issue in South Africa that I did not mention : the age and
ownership of the vehicle fleet. There is a fairly high proportion of cars still on the
roads here, that are older than 10 years - I myself have one 6-year old car that I run on
unleaded petrol, and one 22-year old pick-up that perforce still runs on leaded petrol.
Now I note from postings on the global lead network that you directed me to, that older
vehicles apparently can be run on unleaded petrol without danger of valve-seat recession;
but this is certainly not the picture available to the public here. Both local petrol
companies and vehicle distributors are united in saying that older model vehicles should
under no circumstances run on unleaded petrol, because of the risk of valve seat damage.
The
vehicle manufacturers say that if an older vehicle is run on unleaded fuel, it will be at
the owners' risk.
This is a politically sensitive issue
in South Africa, because the owners of older vehicles are generally economically
disadvantaged people - some are pre-maturely retrenched, others are black citizens who
have only one car, that may be 25 or more years old. The major transport mode for urban
black commuters is by means of "taxis" that use vehicles such as Toyota Hi-ace
vans and Nissan E-20s. Taxi ownership has been one of the major ways some black citizens
have had for economic development; the taxis the drivers own are their only source of
income. Many of these taxis are more than 10 years old and run on leaded petrol. If the
government were to ban sales of leaded petrol here, there would be major political
pressure brought to bear, because the people who would be forced to replace their vehicles
with younger models, and the people who would be at risk from failed valves, would be the
very people who could least afford it.
It is not politically wise to pick a
quarrel with taxi-owners here. The government recently proposed that current taxis should
be phased out; to be replaced by larger, safer "mini-buses". This move caused a
day-long protest by taxi associations that saw major roads blocked off and city centres
deserted. Taxi associations are very powerful and militant here; rival taxi groups
regularly shoot at each other in the streets, or set the taxis of rival groups on fire. I
would estimate that between 150 and 200 taxi-owners, passengers, police and passers-by
have been killed in so-called "taxi-violence" during the last 10 years; in the
last 6 months alone there have been about 6 incidents when gunmen, believed to work for
taxi owners, have attacked "Golden Arrow" buses near Cape Town, apparently
because the "Golden Arrow" buses are perceived to "steal" passengers
from taxis. One taxi killing in 1994, where 8 people were shot dead, took place in
Wadeville, 10 km from where I stay; I actually came onto the scene about ten minutes after
it happened, fortunately after the gunmen had already left.
I note you say that China has been one
of the countries that has moved completely to unleaded petrol; how they could do this, I
do not know, unless car engines there are different in design, and are not susceptible to
valve problems. I would be very interested to know more about the reasoning that
led
China to ban leaded petrol; there may well be useful information for South Africa in these
details. Most of the vehicles here come from either Japan or Europe; there are very few
American designed models (much like Australia, I expect).
If there is a technically sound way of
showing that older vehicles of Japanese and European design can be safely run on unleaded
fuel, without additional costs for valve lubricants, despite what the vehicle
manufacturers and petrol companies say, there may be a chance to advance a ban on leaded
petrol here. Otherwise anybody who stands up to propose a total ban on leaded petrol will
stand a real risk of suffering lead poisoning in the form of an AK-47 bullet!
Elizabeth responded: Hopefully you will find the answers
to many of your questions about how it is not necessary to kill off all the old cars on the road. Valve lubricants and octane
enhancers that do not contain lead are the key, at: Older
Gasoline Vehicles, In Developing Countries and Economies in
Transition:
Their Importance and the Policy Options for Addressing Them
www.oecd.org/dataoecd/36/31/1937052.pdf
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