A recent Japanese study showing dangerously high levels of dioxin exist in Phnom Penh’s dump has angered top Cambodian environmental officials, who dispute the merits of the study and say such a report could hurt the country’s tourism industry.
Minister of Environment Mok Mareth, in a letter to Minister of Cabinet Sok An, said the report could “create social surprise and fear” in the international community because it gives the impression that Cambodia, especially its capital, faces the danger of dioxin and heavy metal poisoning.
“What [the researchers of the report] found in this dioxin report, we think, is not accurate to the obvious situation,” said Chea Sina, deputy director of the Ministry of Environment’s pollution department.
The two-year study’s final report is written by Professor Shinsuke Tanabe of Japan’s Ehime University’s Center for Marine Environmental Studies and was released Dec 29. The report shows high levels of dioxin in the soil and dangerously high amounts of heavy metals in the metabolisms of young boys who scavenge the dump for recyclables. Nearly 900 tons of city garbage is dumped at the Stung Meanchey district site each day.
Environmental pollutants have become a growing concern in many developing Asian countries that have experienced rapid economic and population growth. In Cambodia, which is one of the poorest countries in Asia, there is very little information on environmental contamination after years of civil war.
The most disputed points of Tanabe’s dioxin study are the methodology of the research and the failure by Tanabe to consult with Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment, officials said.
“They need to make more detailed examinations on the soil. Sometimes, they found that the dioxin is just on the upper part of dump,” Chea Sina said. “Usually, one dioxin study needs between 2 to 3 years to complete,” he said.
Dioxin is a highly carcinogenic waste product most commonly formed when garbage-especially garbage containing plastic- is burned. The dioxin is believed to cause cancer, liver problems, and reproduction and nervous system disorders.
Officials at the Ministry of Environment said they wrote to the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the release of the Japanese study without Cambodian consultation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then contacted the Japanese government.
Upon receiving the Cambodian government’s complaint, Japan’s Ministry of Environment reportedly invited Tanabe to explain his findings this week.
“We are worried about this release because it can affect national interest and tourism. Japan should consult with us before any such release,” said Chea Sina.
Tanabe said in an e-mail interview that the pollution is restricted only to the dumping site in Phnom Penh and not found through Cambodia. “We don’t think all of Cambodia is polluted by dioxin,” Tanabe said.
Tanabe strongly defended his findings, stressing that he tested soil, hair, blood and human milk in “one of the top environmental institutes in the world doing research on dioxin, organochlorine pesticides and other ecotoxins.”
“Our major objective [of the study],” Tanabe said, “is to protect the environment of the Phnom Penh dumping site and to protect the health of people living near the dumping site.
“Our heart felt desire is to help and protect Cambodia from the many problems, including environmental issues, that it faces. We don’t think the result we have released will affect or have an impact on eco-tourism. Tourists will never visit the dumping site.”
Tanabe reported his findings to Sok An, whom Tanabe said supported the study’s results findings during a meeting between the two. But Chea Sina said it was a courtesy meeting and Sok An merely expressed his interest in the study.
“Diplomatically speaking at the meeting, Excellency Senior Minister Sok An supported Tanabe’s release of dioxin finding,” said Chea Sina. “But technically speaking, Tanabe’s report has loopholes and his analysis was conducted too quickly, so we cannot accept it.”
In a letter to Sok An, Mok Mareth thanked Tanabe for his great effort and contribution to the protection of environment and public health in Cambodia. But he criticized the research for not complying with the techniques of toxicology studies.
Commonly, any study examining the effects of dioxin or heavy metals on humans requires at least 2 to 3 years to complete, Mok Mareth said. Studies must also include basic information on the background of interviewees about how they live, work and what they eat.
Although Chea Sina charged that Tanabe conducted his study from only Dec 22 to Dec 29, Tanabe actually paid three visits over two years to study dioxin levels at the Phnom Penh dump and took a number of samples for testing, said Dr Touch Seang Tana, a Cambodian fishery scientist who worked on the dioxin study with Tanabe. Touch Seang Tana also said Tanabe’s study included some information on the interviewees histories.
Tanabe’s study concluded a preliminary analyses of soil and human tissue first taken from the dump in January 1999. It suggested that people living and working at the dump face critical health risks due to environmental pollutants.
More than 250 children, mostly boys, who scavenge the dump absorb potentially life-threatening levels of heavy metals such as mercury, cesium and cadmium, the report states.
Heavy metals, which affects the nervous, endocrine and immune systems, could lead to birth defects, said Touch Seang Tana. More than 10 cases of deformities were observed in residents around the dumping site.
Chea Sina, however, said residents living and working at the dump can have some level of heavy metals because they eat contaminated food.
About 90 percent of dioxin in humans is from food consumption, while 10 percent comes from environmental factors, Chea Sina said.
He cited another Japanese study, which was done last October by the Japanese Ebara Cooperation, suggesting that there were lower levels of heavy metals at the Stung Meanchey site than at composting sites at Japanese dumps. Those results differed from Tanabe’s findings.
Touch Seang Tana, however, said the level of dioxin in the soil found at the dump was higher than Japanese standards. He noted that in Japan, the maximum allowed concentration of dioxin in the soil is 1,000 picograms (a trillionth of a gram), but at the dump researchers found concentrations of 1,700 picograms.
Tanabe’s research also found the dump’s non-stop fires had transformed the first few inches of soil at the dump into a poisonous, dioxin-laced substance that required immediate removal in the interest of public safety.
Tanabe said he would use his dioxin findings to lobby for international funding to help Cambodia. He added that burning the garbage at 1000 degrees Celsius, maintaining the landfill more rigorously and recycling more waste in Phnom Penh would greatly reduce the dangers of dioxin at the Stung Meanchey dump.
Touch Seang Tana said that Tanabe will conduct further studies to determine whether new-borns at the Phnom Penh dump are affected by high levels of heavy metals their mothers inhale.
Environment Ministry officials pointed out that Cambodia was not listed as one of the dioxin producers in a 1995 environmental inventory of UN Environmental Program (UNEP) monitoring the dioxin situation worldwide.
Only 15 major industrialized countries were listed as top dioxin producers. Japan and the US were listed as the biggest dioxin producers. The high levels of dioxin reported in the 15 countries was attributed to industrialization.
“Why was the UNEP so negligent in mentioning Cambodian dioxin?” Chea Sina asked.
In some developing nations, including Cambodia, the government seems to keep chemical contamination secret because they fear it may affect their tourism industry, Touch Seang Tana said. He warned that if not properly managed and controlled in 10 years, the city’s residents will face worse health risk.
“We need to acknowledge the truth that there could be some pollution and find a solution to prevent it from becoming worse,” Touch Seang Tana said.
Tanabe also found evidence of arsenic contamination of ground water in the area, findings that support a World Health Organization study released in August that found about 9 percent of Cambodia’s wells are contaminated with arsenic.
Arsenicosis manifests itself after eight to 15 years of long-term consumption of arsenic-laced water. Symptoms, which are often mistaken for leprosy, include abnormal black-brown pigmentation of the skin, thickening of the skin on palms and soles, gangrene in the lower extremities and skin cancer.
Tanabe and his four-member team of researchers found repeated instances of black-brown pigmentation of the skin and pre-cancerous lesions associated with arsenicosis on the hands and feet of people living at the Phnom Penh dump.
Villagers living in and near the dump use 20 to 30 wells in the area. Researchers and municipal health officials say the water from the wells is undrinkable and highly contaminated with arsenic.
Veng Thai, director of municipal health department, said his department has been advising villagers not to drink or boil water for drinking.
Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara said the city is seeking donors funding to remove all the garbage from the dump. Chea Sophara said he wants to relocate the garbage to a new site located about 22 km south of Phnom Penh, which would cost nearly $500 million. He said the garbage will be processed into compost fertilizer.
Even though controversy surrounds Tanabe’s study, Touch Seang Tana said he’s glad to see debate among Cambodian environmentalists.
“It signals that environment officials are starting a scientific debate on what Tanabe released,” Touch Seang Tana said. “We want to see this type of debate in Cambodia growing, even if it is in an opposing manner.
“For me as a scientist, I have the same open-mindedness as Mr [Albert] Einstein, who welcomed any new scientific finding even if it was against what he did.”
