Prof. Thattil in his opinion expressed
in “The Island” of 2nd August 2013 states: “Government policy with
regard to the problem should not be based on half baked studies and flimsy conclusions.
Is reduced use of fertilizer and agrochemicals going to solve the problem ?
Fertilizer and agrochemicals are used in all parts of the Island. If then, why
is CKDu predominantly present only in the North Central Province ? There may be
many other factors involved. The genetic factor and its interactions with other
variables have not been studies at all. There are those who swear that rice
contains unacceptable levels of heavy metals whose source is the fertilizer and
agrochemicals applied to rice. But, they eat the same rice that is eaten by the
farmers of the NCP and have no problems! The WHO quite clearly states that
Cadmium levels in rice is less than allowable limits.”
As an academic Prof. Thattil should have
gone through the literature (what is usually known as a literature survey in so
called courses on research methodology taught to postgraduate students and some
undergraduates) on the Agrochemical Chronic Kidney Disease (ACKD), before
attempting to express his opinion in a national newspaper. I reckon that
writing to national newspapers is more important than writing so called
research papers in “reputed international journals” as usually more people are
bound to take an interest in newspaper articles. Further the editors of
newspapers do not have the luxury of employing referees to review the articles,
and hence the author of a newspaper article has more responsibility in getting
his facts correct especially regarding material published already. Though the
academics do not have much respect for articles published in newspapers, it
does not mean that the academics can publish in newspapers without presenting
the facts correctly. I must say that I have published almost all my original
ideas in newspapers, especially in Sinhala language newspapers, as I want to
reach as many readers as possible knowing very well that I would not be awarded
“points” for publication in newspapers in respect of promotions. In spite of
that and being kept away from the University system for nearly fourteen years
(one fourth of the normal academic life) mainly due to the colonial vijathika attitudes of the academics, I
have not done badly as I was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics at Sri
Jayawardhanepura, which I did not take up as I thought that my destiny was with
Kelaniya. My decision to remain at Kelaniya was fruitful as I was able to lead
the ACKD team of able Chemists, Botanists, Mathematicians and MBBS qualified
doctors successfully against the opposition of western “scientists”,
“statisticians” and others who are blind to non western methods of creating
(acquiring) knowledge.
It is regrettable that Prof. Thattil did
not express his views when this matter on the cause of ACKD was discussed
sometime ago. It may be that he was busy with Z score “analysis” that created
chaos in the university admissions forcing the government to admit thousands of
students more to the universities in the 2011/2012 academic year owing to the
erroneous judgment of a bench that included a Chief Justice, which was based on
so called specialist opinion of western “statisticians”. It has to be mentioned
that there are residual problems emanating from the judgment, which have been
over flown to the admissions on the results of the GCE (A/L) examination held
in August 2012. It is unfortunately the government and the students who have to
face the music, but not the judges and the “statisticians”. Similarly it is the
poor patients suffering from ACKD that have to die as a result of the disease,
but not the old western “scientists”, “statisticians”, doctors and others who can afford to engage
in useless academic discussions on the causative factors of the disease, until
the crows both old and young come home.
If Prof. Thattil had followed the discussion
in the newspaper articles in his free time when he was not involved in “Z score
analysis” he would have noticed that as late as 13th March 2013,
during the time the 2011/2012 batch was being admitted to the universities, in
an article on “Arsenic as the cause of the CKDu” I had said the following. “Some people either through meditation, yoga or
such methods, reach high spiritual state and thus gain knowledge or become able
to communicate with Gods from whom they acquire knowledge indirectly. When Dr.
Jayasumana went to Mrs. Senanayake he was told by the Natha Deviyan and
Vipassaka Deviyan that the main cause of the CKDU was arsenic, the hard water
and the particular soil called the "Kumburu Pasa" being the other two
causes. What the Devivaru told was that the Kumburu Pasa has a tendency to
retain arsenic which finally mixes with the Calcium and Magnesium salts found
in hard water. The arsenic gets into the Calcium and Magnesium salts in a
peculiar way making it almost undetectable in hard water. The hard water or
kivul jalaya contributes to the spread of the CKDu and people who consume water
from Vevas that does not consist of much hard water are less likely to be
victims of CKDU.”
The ACKD is confined to certain areas
including Rajarata mainly because all the three factors, Arsenic, hard water
and the particular soil known as “kumburu pasa” are found in those areas. Thus
though farmers in other areas may be using the same agrochemicals they may not be
victims of ACKD as the factors other than Arsenic are most probably not present
in those areas. Even in Rajarata it should be noted that those who consume
water from the “vevas” are not affected as hard water is not generally found in
“vevas”. The ACKD team at Kelaniya did not claim that eating rice is a cause of
the disease though rice contains arsenic. Thus while thanking Prof. Thattil for
his concern towards those who eat rice it could safely be said that ACKD is not
due to eating rice by the Rajarata farmers and other victims. In fact in an article published in the “Irida
Divaina” with the title “Api Bath Kamu” on the 3rd of July 2011,
which is reproduced in a collection of articles in “Batahira Vidyava Arsenic ha
Deviyo”, I have dealt with this issue. What causes ACKD is Arsenate both
Calcium and Magnesium varieties formed as a result of interaction between
Arsenic and the Calcium and Magnesium salts found in hard water. Eating of rice
would not deposit Calcium and Magnesium Arsenates in the Kidneys and people
would not become victims of ACKD by eating rice. It has to be reiterated that
the Kelaniya group has presented their results at various seminars and
workshops published in “international journals”. These results are based on
tests carried out at Kelaniya and other places including accredited
laboratories, and we do not want the “scientists” to believe the gods though
some may believe in an all mighty God.
I know that the causative factors is
curse for western science, western statistics being a handmaiden of the former. Now in the article on “Arsenic as
the cause of the CKDu, I had expressed my views in the following manner. “Now for mortals like us who have no direct
experience with causative factors it is very difficult to identify the cause of
something. Following Hume one may even say that there are no causes as such,
because cause is not a direct experience. We only consider certain phenomena as
causes of some others through induction and there is no way to "prove"
that A is the cause of B. We after observing B following A on number of
occasions come to the conclusion that A is the cause of B by induction of
course after having constructed the concept of cause. In any event in the case
of CKDu the western medicine has not identified the cause of CKDU in Rajarata
and other areas and thus called it Chronic Kidney Disease with unidentified
etiology. I am told that Kidney diseases are caused of various factors Cadmium
being one of them. However, western medicine has not identified CKDU as caused
by Cadmium though Cadmium is the cause of one or several kidney diseases. This
meant that the symptoms of kidney diseases caused by Cadmium were not found
among the patients of CKDu as if it were the case the western medicine practitioners
at least from the western country could have come out with cadmium as the
causative factor. As it is it did not happen the cause of CKDu in Rajrata and
adjoining areas remained unidentified.” (To be continued)
Nalin De Silva
14-08-2013
