The opinion expressed by Prof. R. O.
Thattil on “Heavy metals, gods, CKDu and govt. policy” in “The Island”
of 2nd August 2013 is a clear example of what could be called the
hegemony of western science. In essence what he says is that the cause or
causes of what is known as the Chronic Kidney Disease (unidentified etiology) –
CKDu- is not known and as there are only
half baked results the government should not make any changes of policy until
the western scientists come out with the cause or the causes of CKDu. In the
meantime let the patients die as there is no cure in western medicine for CKDu
except the “kokatath thailaya” or dialyzing. If the patient is lucky enough he
would be able to go through a transplant and save his life. Dialyzing is not a
cure and the western medicine that has no treatment only manages the CKDu
through this process. The western knowledge is all about management, though
only recently the westerners themselves have realized it resulting with the establishment of Faculties
of Management.
The term “unidentified etiology” clearly
illustrates that western science/medicine has not identified the cause of this
particular Kidney Disease. The Disease had been there for at least thirty years
and the local western “scientists” (I hate to call these people who have not
come out with a new theory or a concept in western science as scientists. They
are in effect glorified laboratory technicians or assistants. If they are
scientists anybody with Advanced Level passes in western science subjects
should also be called a scientist) have studied the problem for over two
decades. We recently came to know that a similar disease has been spread in
some of the South American countries including El Salvador and they had called
the disease Kidney Disease due to nontraditional causes! The name indicates
that the South Americans also did not know the cause of the disease spread
among cane sugar farmers in those countries. Thus though there may be varieties
of Kidney Diseases with known cause or causes this particular kidney disease
found in Sri Lanka and some South American countries either had no cause or the
causes were awaiting the arrival of a bright western “scientist” to reveal them
leaving the patients to die without treatment. It is obvious that western
medicine/science that does not know the cause of the CKDu has no treatment for
it.
It should be stated before proceeding
further that the disease is not found in Cuba, though they also grow cane
sugar. The difference between Cuba and the South American countries where the
Kidney Disease due to nontraditional causes is found is based on the use of
Agrochemicals. Cuba does not use
Agrochemicals produced using the knowledge of western science (Chemistry,
Agriculture) and they do not have to be worried of patients dying of the Kidney
Disease. Two of the members of the Kelaniya team, Dr. Channa Jayasumana,
probationary lecturer in Pharmacology who was recruited to the staff of the
Department of Pharmacology, Rajarata University on the strength of his performance
at the third MBBS examination and not at the final examination ( I will come
out with more on this later after an enquiry instituted by the University of
Kelaniya on the qualifications of Dr.
Jayasumana is over), and Dr. Kumudu Dahnayaka, consultant Judicial Medical
Officer, that studied the problem were invited by the South Americans to El
Salvador after they heard of our results and
conducted studies on Agrochemicals, pesticides, Arsenic and other heavy
metals in Cuba. They are now convinced unlike our “scientists” that the disease
is mainly due to Arsenic. In fact the Minster of Health in El Salvador has
thanked our health ministry for sharing this knowledge.
We shall now come to the opinion of
Prof. Thattil in more detail. He states “Overall the statements made in the discussion
are very superficial with no attempt being made at recognizing that CKDu can be
caused by a multiplicity of factors. It is also worth noting that factors need
not be independently associated while interactions between factors are more
likely. Interactions can also mask main effects and therefore Univariate
analysis will be non – conclusive.”
“The conclusions reached in other
studies are diverse and questionable. No attempts have been made to treat the
cause of CKDu as a multivariate problem. No multivariate analytical procedures
have been used. Therefore, no valid conclusions are possible. Whatever model
used for the study should include interaction effects, while proper sampling
techniques should be used to obtain data. I do not want to talk about the
involvement of Gods in pinpointing the problem as it is not my field.”
Prof. Thattil perhaps wisely does not
want to talk on the involvement of gods as it is not his field. Involvement of
gods (not Gods), may not be his field, and he may not believe in the existence
of gods who are invisible to most of us.
I wonder whether he believes in God who has apparently been visible to
some prophets and others. In any event if he does not believe in gods simply
because they are invisible to most of us but not to Mrs. Priyantha Senanayake
and some others then he cannot believe in a gravitational force (field), as to
my knowledge except for a senior lecturer in Chemistry with a Ph. D. from
Cambridge nobody else has sensed gravitation. In other words almost all the
“scientists” believe in gravitation, though only one of them has felt its
presence. Thus the invisible gravitation
is believed to be present by the “scientists” though most of them find it
stupid to believe in gods. I assure the
“scientists” that I will show them the gods the moment they show me
gravitation. More information on gods and invisible phenomena could be found in
the articles I write to Vidusara.
Whether Prof. Thattil believes in God,
gods, gravitational force (field) or not, as the leader of the Kelaniya team
that claimed that Arsenic is the main cause of the CKDu after it was
communicated to us by the gods, I wish to emphasize that we never wanted Prof.
Thattil or anybody else whether “scientist” or not, to believe that Arsenic is
the main cause of the disease on the words of the gods. Chemical analysis were
conducted in the University and other laboratories accredited as well, under
the leadership of Senior Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kelaniya
Prof. Priyani Paranagama who is recognized as one of the ablest Chemists
(western of course) in the country, and it was based on these studies we
announced that Arsenic is the main cause of the CKDu, the other causes being
hard water and the particular soil that could retain the Arsenic. Thus ours was
not a uni- variate analysis and I will deal with Statistical Analysis of Prof.
Thattil later.
We understand that the Arsenic is the
main cause and without Arsenic this particular Kidney Disease would not be
spread. This is not a Cadmium based disease, though presence of Cadmium may
aggravate it. Cadmium based Kidney Diseases have other symptoms not found in
the patients in Rajarata and associated areas. It is also found that hard water
carries Arsenic to the Kidneys in the form of Calcium and Magnesium Arsenates
to be retained there. Thus hard water is an essential ingredient and we as
Sinhala Buddhists guided by Sinhala Buddhist Chinthanaya always look for
multiple reasons without attempting to reduce to a single cause. I am sure that
the “samyakdrshtika” gods also do not reduce phenomena to a single cause. We
are not reductionists as western scientists and western “scientists” in Sri
Lanka who in the final analysis reduce everything to a single cause as they are
guided by the most well known single cause the God. The Arsenic which is the
main cause of CKDu as well as the Kidney Disease in El Salvador and other South
American countries comes from Agrochemicals and I propose to name this
particular Kidney Disease as Agrochemical Chronic Kidney Disease. (To be
continued)
Nalin De Silva
07-08-2013