Published on June 27, 2005

More than 3,000 villagers from Tak’s Mae Sot and Muang districts are to undergo blood tests after the discovery of 700 people with high levels of cadmium in their blood, suspected to have come from eating contaminated rice.

The move is the latest development in a saga that began early in 2004, when an international research organisation, the International Water Management Institute, warned of dangerously high levels of cadmium contamination in Huay Mae Tao basin in Tambon Phra That Phadaeng and Tambon Mae Tao of Tak's Mae Sot district. The institute warned that 110,000 people in the area ran the risk of developing diseases as a consequence.

In April last year, two zinc mining companies, Padaeng Industry and Tak Mining, paid Bt1.1 million in compensation for 130 tonnes of local rice that had to be destroyed because of the contamination. Amid medical estimates that 500 people had already suffered kidney damage, farmers were told to stop growing rice on the contaminated land.

However, local farmers, who claimed they had not been told how else to survive, planted new crops. Citing lack of government assistance, they even turned to Japan for help because of that country’s experience with heavy metal poisoning.

Yesterday, Dr Chanthana Padungthot of Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine said the Disease Control Department and Mae Sot Hospital would randomly check the blood of 2,500 villagers in Mae Sot district and 600 others in Muang district.

She said the department wanted to know how widespread the contamination problem was.

She said that the Bt30 medical scheme would not cover the tests and medical costs of all villagers at risk, but hoped the allocation of funds could be changed so that all involved were covered.

Chanthana said that although 700 villagers had been found to have high levels of cadmium in their blood, they were not considered “patients”.

“Cadmium can be accumulated in the body for 20 to 30 years before people become ill from acute renal failure or osteoporosis,” she said.

Human Rights Commissioner Suni Chairot expressed concern for the rights of the villagers affected, and asked whether they would be compensated by those responsible.

She said the problem had been detected almost two years ago, and the government still had not determined how many people were affected.

The government had also failed to offer the villagers an alternative livelihood after telling them not to grow rice. The Agriculture Ministry had found that they should opt for rubber and castor oil plants or decorative plants, but the villagers had not taken part in the decision making, and had not been asked what they wanted to do for a living.

Annop Tangnanukulchai, an executive of Padaeng Industry Plc, said the Institute of Environmental Research had found that the cadmium contamination occurred because of forest destruction and encroachment.

He said forest destruction caused soil erosion and, because the area had high levels of zinc and cadmium, the two metals were washed from the soil and flowed into watercourses.

He admitted, however, that mining operations had contributed to the contamination.

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