Western Science, Astrology and Arsenic - I

This is a response to two articles by Mr. R. Chandrasoma and Dr U P de S Waidyanatha entitled respectively Astrology is humbug and CKDu: Scientific evidence and anti-science zealotry published in “The Island” on 19th April 2013 and 29th and 30th April 2013. I am not an anti science zealot but I have evidence in Aristotelian logic as well as in Catuskoti logic to demonstrate that western science is nothing but humbug. I do not claim that Dr. Waidyanatha calls me an anti science zealot but I thought it is appropriate to respond to his article as well. He has referred to Chulla Haththi Padopama Sutta on coming to conclusions with bits and pieces of information. However, he may not realize that the Chulla Haththi Padopama Sutta is against the so called scientific method propagated by western philosophers of western science.

I do not believe that there is a scientific method as such as claimed by the western intellectuals and their apologists here, but there is a method which could be called storytelling and if one may add one more word it is abstract storytelling which is not found in our culture. Abstract storytelling is found not only in western science but also in western novels and short stories which Martin Wickremesinghe and Ediriweera Saracchandra attempted to introduce to Sinhala Literature. Gunadasa Amarasekera preaches abstract storytelling but to his credit does not practice it. His characters though he may like them to represent abstract people representing what he would wish to call social reality are nothing but concrete creatures who could be identified easily.

The so called scientists in Sri Lanka are probably not aware of abstract storytelling as they are confined to what Kuhn called normal science, very often engaging in “scientific” cookery where one adds one liter of such and such to one gram of something else and heat to a certain temperature. The so called theories in western science are nothing but abstract stories and they are not in harmony with what is advocated in Chulla Haththi Padopama Sutta. No wonder that many a scholar in Sri Lanka have misunderstood some Suttas in their zealousness to rationalize Bududahama. The oft quoted Kalama Sutta is a case in point which a well known Professor who can remember almost anything he hears for the first time but fails to understand even after twenty five years of repeating what he has heard.

Before we discuss the Chulla Haththi Padopama Sutta in respect of Arsenic we will discuss what Mr. Chandrasoma has to say on Astrology. He says among other words of wisdom the following: “It must be remarked at this point that famous and clever people in the past were great believers in astrology - the likes of Kepler and Isaac Newton. These people also believed in Alchemy and Biblical prophecy. That great men in the past were mistaken in some of their fundamental beliefs is no reason to adhere to dated and stupid views that are demonstrably and palpably false given our current knowledge of the world and of man’s place in it. Today, only the daft and the incorrigibly purblind will be persuaded by the argument that a perturbation in planetary positions will influence the marriage prospects of a bipedal Hominid in Moratuwa.” I am not sure how Mr. Chandrasoma came to the conclusion that Astrology is humbug. In my case I have come to the conclusion that western science is humbug after studying it as an adolescent, then as a so called scientist having gained a Ph. D. in Relativistic Astrophysics, having being a member of the so called International Astronomical union, having taught subjects connected with Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in three universities in Sri Lanka though none would take me back even if I was under sixty five today, and of course having studied western philosophy of western science on my own for more than thirty years and not by reading Kuhn, Feyerabend though I am familiar with their work. I wonder whether Mr. Chandrasoma had studied Astrology before he came to the conclusion that Astrology is humbug.

I only hope that Mr. Chandrasoma did not come to the conclusion that Astrology is humbug after reading Popper or any other person great or otherwise as in his own admission “great people” such as Newton had been wrong. On the other hand we do not know whether the “great persons” who claim that Astrology is humbug or words to that effect have themselves studied Astrology. How many western scientists whether Nobel Laureates or otherwise have studied Astrology? If not how did those who have come to the conclusion that Astronomy is humbug did so? Astronomy or Nakshasthra is part of Astrology and the Nakshasthra I have studied including Rahu Ketu and the Rahu catching (swallowing) the Sun and the Moon during what are now known as eclipses are valid concepts. Rahu and Ketu are the points of intersections of the paths of the Sun and the Moon relative to Earth. Only those who are ignorant of relative motion would claim that the Sun does not move with respect to Earth acknowledging the so called absolute motion which perhaps only the God observes. Even the “nonagatha” period during the “avurudda” has a good explanation in nakshastra.

Mr. Chandrasoma, however, asks a very pertinent question. He wants to find out how the “grahayas” ( not the planets or graha vastu according to the official glossary– Planets are some of those physical objects that are supposed to go round the sun, while Rahu, Ketu, Ravi, Chandra are “grahayas” though not planets. Some “grahyas” may be planets but that does mean that all the “grahayas” are planets) could affect the matrimonial prospects of a bipedal couple in Moratuwa. An intellectual in Sri Lanka could have asked why Moratuwa of all the places? Whatever the reason for selecting Moratuwa could Mr. Chandrasoma tell us how the Sun and the other planets affect the motion of the Earth? Or how could these extra terrestrial objects affect the motion of the bipedals in Moratuwa? Or worse than that how could extra galactic objects affect the motion of the bipedals in Moratuwa?

When Newton said that any two particles in the Universe (it must be remembered that Newton did not have the modern western concept of the Universe) attract each other with a certain force called the gravitational force how did he know? Did he explain how the particles could influence each other the way he has preached according to his well known formula? In fact when his contemporaries asked him to explain how the Sun exerted this so called gravitational force he had no answer. There was no concept of force as understood in western science during Newton’s days and all that they knew was an object was either pulled or pushed with hands or using a rope or a pole as the case may be. When the contemporaries of Newton asked the latter where was the rope with which the Sun attracted the Earth Newton had no answer. All that he could say was that it was “action at a distance”.

The action at a distance was not accepted by some of the contemporaries of Newton and the western science had to wait for Maxwell to come out with a mechanism to explain how the Sun exerted a force on the bipedals of Moratuwa or Timbuktu. Maxwell introduced the concept of a field in connection with electromagnetism, and it was borrowed by the gravitational physicists to explain Newton’s action at a distance using the concept of gravitational force. Gravitational field constructed using the concept of an Electromagnetic (Electrostatic Magnetostatic ) field is an abstract story and nothing else. Nobody has experienced a gravitational force or a gravitational field and it is only a mechanism (story) constructed by the western physicists to explain how a particle on the other side of the universe exerts a force on a given particle. The bipedals in Moratuwa are supposed to be comprised of these particles. (To be continued)

(13/05/01)

Nalin De Silva

Arsenic as the cause of CKDU – III

When we commenced our work associated with the Chronic Kidney Disease unidentified etiology (CKDu) it was clear that western medicine did not know the cause of the disease let alone a cure for that. Various substances such as Cadmium, Fluoride, Algae had been mentioned by some researchers as the cause but western medicine had maintained that the etiology was not identified. If Cadmium had been identified as the cause we would have had no reason to go to gods as a method of acquiring knowledge. The gods said Arsenic was the main cause, the other causes being “kumburu pasa” (a particular soil) and hard water. We tested for Arsenic in water, pesticides and some other agrochemicals, and also in body parts such as hair, nails and also in urine of the people in the affected areas. Our tests revealed that there was Arsenic in all the samples we brought from Rajarata areas and as was said in the previous installments we announced these results to the media so that the government and the people would be aware of the situation.

However, it has to be mentioned that though we were able to demonstrate that Arsenic was present in the samples we tested using the methods of western Chemistry we had not identified Arsenic as the cause of CKDu according to the methods used in western medicine. Our knowledge on the cause is basically what the gods told us through Mrs. Senanayake but the fact that we were able to find Arsenic in hard water encouraged us to believe what the gods conveyed. The gods also told us the mechanism through which combined Arsenic and hard water caused the disease. It is not easy to detect Arsenic in hard water as Arsenic is “hidden” inside the molecules of Calcium and Magnesium salts. The Arsenic through hard water reaches the kidneys and get stuck in without being filtered with urine. Had Arsenic filtered out of the kidneys the way Cadmium does not much damage would have been done to the kidneys.

The World Health Organization (WHO), another arm of western cultural colonialism, that propagates western medicine came out with what they call the final report on CKDu about three weeks ago. They do not identify the cause of the CKDu though some politicians laymen as well as Bhikkus try to gain political mileage out of the WHO report by blaming the government . The WHO report mentions that Cadmium as well as Arsenic are present in the samples they tested but finds that Arsenic is not much present in the urine of the patients. This report has been used by politicians as well as so called scientists to mislead the general public. The “scientists” who were adamant that there was no Arsenic in body parts and the agrochemicals now admit that there is Arsenic in those substances. However they attempt unsuccessfully to give the impression that Cadmium is the cause of CKDu, so that they could get some satisfaction by claiming that Arsenic is not the cause. They cannot fool the public in general as western medicine had failed to identify Cadmium as the cause of the disease previously. As western medicine is aware of Kidney Diseases caused by Cadmium had Cadmium being the cause of the disease the western medical personnel could have easily identified it long ago. In fact even the WHO report does not identify Cadmium or any other substance as the cause of CKDu.

The “scientists” who blame us for resorting to so called unscientific methods are interested in claiming that anything but Arsenic is the cause of the disease. These bankrupt scientists after the WHO report have been forced to admit that Arsenic is present in pesticides though previously they “swore by the gods” that Arsenic is naturally present in the soil and also in the human bodies. However, the WHO report, obviously based on experiments carried at so called accredited laboratories with validated results according to a scientist who could not get through his first examination the first time he sat, claims that Arsenic is present in pesticides in harmful quantities.

The balance sheet, as they say, at present is that people die of CKDu, almost two persons in thre days, Arsenic is present in quantities that are harmful to the humans in pesticides, Arsenic is present in various body parts of the patients, though Arsenic is not found in alarming quantities in urine of the patients, western medicine is still unaware of the cause of CKDu, there is no cure for the disease in western medicine, the government is inactive in the sense that they have not taken any meaningful steps to prevent the spreading of the disease. The politicians who are in the opposition as well as in the government who would like to obtain few more votes at the next elections have gone to town criticizing the government. They claim that not enough dialyzing machines have been provided to the hospitals in the affected areas and in certain places such as Padavi Sripura though there is a machine in the hospital there are no trained personnel to operate it. Then they also claim that water filters have not been distributed to the people so that the latter can purify the drinking water.

While we appreciate the distribution of water filters and provision of dialyzing machines to the hospitals it has to be emphasized that neither is a cure for the CKDu. The dialyzing machines will keep the patient alive for a few more weeks but is not a cure. Similarly water filters will make the importers of filters as well as agrochemicals happy without eradicating the disease. If there is no cure for the CKDu in western medicine the government should obtain the services of Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani and Sinhala paramparika physicians even on an “experimental” basis. There are such physicians who have claimed that they can cure the disease and no harm will be done by encouraging them to try their hands on the unfortunate victims in the affected areas. If western medicine cannot cure the CKDu why not let some others to treat the patients, without asking for the certificates obtained in some school of medicine recognized by the government. We should break away from the certificates, accredited laboratories, validated results of the so called consultants and specialists, scientists and what not. These people to my knowledge have not come out with a new theory or concept and the so called scientific method is nothing but a pattapal boruwa. Are we going to ignore our knowledge and let people die for the sake of maintaining so called scientific method and attitudes?

If the ministry of health states in their cabinet memorandum that the WHO report has not established the cause of the CKDu, we should not try to blame the ministry whitewashing the WHO report. The WHO report produced after spending Rs. hundred million out of which Rs. Seventy million came from the government funds cannot identify the cause or recommend a cure for the report. Though so far we have not been able to establish that Arsenic is the main cause of the disease according to western methods we claim that it is so depending on our methods. It was our group that claimed Arsenic is the main cause of a Kidney Disease for the first time in the world, and we have shown that Arsenic is present in Agrochemicals and body parts of the patients. The fact the WHO report mentions that Arsenic is not found in large quantities compared to Cadmium in urine of the patients give indirect evidence to the cause of the disease as it is clear that Arsenic is retained in the Kidneys causing damage. It has to be mentioned that our studies did not cost the government more than one hundred thousand rupees.

The problem started after the so called green revolution which introduced Agrochemicals to the farmers in the sixties by the UNP government. The contamination of water with Arsenic took place after that, and by the eighties the first CKDu patients had appeared. The use of Agrochemicals have to be stopped gradually introducing the farmers to Sinhala govikma and may be traditional Tamil farming so that we would be able to produce poison less food. There is no point in blaming the present government alone for the killings of the people as all the governments since 1965, have encouraged use of Agrochemicals. I do not criticize the governments either as they get instructions from high powered officials who are trained to believe that the so called scientific solutions have to be adopted. It is the western Christian colonialism with its cultural component involving western Christian knowledge based on Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya that have to be blamed for the killing of two people in three days and I deplore the attitudes of the political Bhikkus and politicians who want to maintain the so called western scientific methods in order to win a few votes at the next election sacrificing thousands of people.

(13/03/27)

Arsenic as the cause of CKDU

Arsenic issue, as usual, has taken a political direction. It cannot be helped as there is lot of politics around Arsenic. Politics in western Christian colonialism is bound with culture and the fight is not only against those who are responsible for the Chronic Kidney Disease unidentified etiology (CKDU) directly but against the cultural colonialists as well. The UNP, JVP and some three wheeler parties attempt to gain political mileage by accusing the government for not supplying the dialyzing machines and other equipment to the government hospitals in Padavi Sripura and other affected areas. However, western medicine that does not know the cause of the CKDU has no treatment for the disease. Dialyzing is not a cure and it is only a method of management of the disease. It is not bad idea to distribute filters but one should go to the root cause if one is interested in finding a lasting solution to the problem. We have found that Arsenic that comes from agrochemicals is the main cause of the disease and unless one stops agrochemical based agriculture the disease cannot be eliminated. Distribution of filters will maintain the filter producers and importers as well as Agrochemical firms. We have to find an alternative to agrochemical based agriculture meaning that we have to go back to Sinhala Govikama that did not kill pests and also to Sinhala Vedakama including Sinhala Nila Vedakama that has cure for the CKDu. Filters and dialyzing machines are only management of the disease and no better than “athisarate amuda geheema”. The CKDU has been in existence for more than two decades but neither the public, the so called intellectuals, the media nor the politicians paid any attention to it until we came out with the Arsenic issue, in connection with the CKDU. The irony is that the media in general, except for a very few newspapers and television channels, have forgotten the people who were responsible for informing that Arsenic is the cause of the CKDU.

Let us start at the very beginning. My attention to the CKDU was drawn by Dr. Channa Jayasumana, a probationary lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology at the Rajarata University. I have known Dr. Jayasumana from his student days at the University of Peradeniya and he had been interested in the subject of theory of knowledge (epistemology) for some time. When Dr. Jayasumana informed me of the plight of the patients in Rajarata I was naturally disturbed, and I thought of a way to help these innocent people who supply the food including the so called staple food. By this time I had been cured of several diseases by what may be called divine medicine through Mrs. Priyantha Senanayake who can communicate with a few whom she calls “deivaru” . Among them Natha Deviyan and Vipassaka Deviyan are the foremost in the sense that they are the most knowledgeable and also most spiritually advanced. I had no hesitation in directing Dr. Jayasumana to Mrs. Senanayake.

I am a Sinhala Buddhist and I am proud to be so, even though the Sinhala Buddhists at present are very imitative and hypocrite. The Sinhala Buddhists have a proud record of protecting Theravada Buddhism and building a rich culture that enabled the people to live in harmony with nature. The Sinhala Buddhists have acquired knowledge from the devas (Gods), like the ancient Greeks, Bharats and specially the Jews who have been in communication with their God who is known as Jehovah. The Greeks have obtained knowledge from their Gods such as Apollo, Jupiter and Goddesses such as Athena. In Bharat it is clear that they had had advice from Gods such as Krishna as in the case of Kuru Pandava “war”. The people either through meditation, yoga or some such method, reach high spiritual state and thus gain knowledge or become able to communicate with Gods from whom they acquire knowledge indirectly. The Sinhala Buddhists at least from the time of Arhant Mahinda Thero have recognized only “Prathyaksha” as a means of gaining knowledge, Buddha Prathyaksha being a very special kind of Prathyaksha. The Chullahaththipadopama Suththa the first Dhrama Deshana (For anybody’s sake not sermon) of Arhant Mahinda Thero to the Sinhala people was on “prathyaksha” as the only means of acquiring knowledge. I will come back to this aspect later, when discussing the so called scientific method. I had no doubt at all that Mrs. Senanayake obtained knowledge from whom she called Natha Deviyan and Vipassaka Deviyan as she did not know anything on Medicine, whether it is western, Ayurvedic, Sinhala or anything else. According to her the Medicine she practiced was “Sinhala Nila Vedacama” which she became “knowledgeable” of through the Devivaru.

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 had 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.

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, as 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 had 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 such causative factors. However western medicine had 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 was the case the western medicine practitioners at least from a western country could have come out with cadmium as the causative factor. As it is it did not happen, and the cause of CKDU in Rajrata and associated areas remained unidentified.

However, it must be said that a few years back a researcher from the Faculty of agriculture at Peradeniya, if I am not mistaken, had found that there was Cadmium in some fish in the Veavs of Rajarata and also in the lotus roots (nelum ala) and identified Cadmium with CKDU. It is true that some kidney diseases are caused by Cadmium and that Cadmium is found in Rajarata soil, fauna and flora. However, even if we do not go to the extent Hume went, from such data alone it is not possible to conclude that Cadmium is the cause of CKDU. As mentioned above the patients in Rajarata and associated areas did not show symptoms of Cadmium associated Kidney Diseases and the western medicine did not identify Cadmium as the cause of CKDU. Then some others had come out with fluoride as the cause of the CKDU but western medicine did not take much notice of these assumptions.

It was in this background that Mrs. Senanayake told us that Arsenic is the main cause of CKDU, with hard water and the particular soil known as “Kumburu Pasa” being the auxiliary causes. I presume that the devivaru did not have to go through what Hume had said on causative factors and they knew that Arsenic, Hard Water and the “Kumburu Pasa” are the causes of CKDU through some kind of “Prathyaksha”. Of course we did not have the means of showing that these were the causes of CKDU but we decided to test for Arsenic in soil, water and in the bodies of patients and also of those who had died of CKDU. Profs. Priyani Paranagama and Mala Amarasinghe of the Faculty of Science undertook to carry out the research associated with Arsenic with Dr. Jayasumana working as a postgraduate student. The latter registered for a postgraduate degree at the University of Kelaniya after all the relevant boards including the university senate approving his candidature for such degree. A special reference must be made on the commitment of and sacrifice made by Prof. Paranagama to see that the research was carried out successfully. Mainly due to her untiring effort the Kelaniya group was able to show that there was Arsenic in the samples of water, soil, flora and also in the body parts of patients. Instead of honouring Prof. Paranagama she was abused, intimidated, and threatened by people with vested interests. (To be continued)

(13/03/13)

Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva

Back to Arsenic - Nonpublished

There is Arsenic in the soil and water of areas affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. It is not coming from Natha Deviyo or Vipassaka Deviyo but from the horse’s mouth so to say. WHO according to a certain newspaper has said: “The WHO had appointed an international team to do research related to CKD on a request made by Health Minister Maitripala Sirisena and this team commenced research about under the patronage of WHO Headquarters Senior Advisor Prof.Shanthi Mendis.

This team has planned to conduct their research under four key research questions. They are: What is the prevalence of CKD?,What is the incidence of CKD?, What is the exact geographical distribution of CKD? and Which strategies could prevent the condition?.

While continuing their research based on these questions, they have found that CKD cases has been observed in North Central, North Western, Uva and Eastern Provinces and it was also revealed that 8,000 people are currently undergoing treatment for this condition.

Experiments on CKD cases were conducted on a wide scale with the assistance of a number of institutions and it has been developed as a national research programme.

According to Prof. Mendis heavy metals could cause this condition and they have already conducted several experiments on three heavy metals, namely, cadmium, arsenic and lead. She said heavy metals are contained in soil, water and the food chain on a normal level and if it increases, it will be a threat to one’s health.”

WHO has also said that hard water is also responsible for the disease and warned the people not to consume hard water. As an immediate step the government should take steps to prevent people using well water which is the main hard water supply as far as the villagers in the affected areas are concerned. I am told that the best source of water is the wewa but with the present conditions I am not sure as to how the government would cope up with the situation. In any event the government and other organizations will have to provide the people with fresh water as much as possible. Having said that the medical practitioners should come out with a cure for the disease and I am not sure what WHO experts have in their minds with respect to this aspect.

In any event we know now that Arsenic is present in the soil and water in the affected areas and also that hard water is also a cause of CKD. It is no more CKDu, or Chronic Kidney Disease unidentified etiology but CKD. However, the group at the University of Kelaniya researching on CKD had known this for some time and at various seminars had made presentations revealing their findings. In fact it was the Kelaniya group which first announced that Arsenic is the main cause of the disease. The group at Kelaniya had said that CKD is caused mainly by Arsenic but two more conditions were needed to account for the high incidence of the disease in certain areas, they being hard water and a particular soil known as the kumburu pasa that is found in the affected areas. The mechanisms had been explained during the presentations but the great scientists in Sri Lanka made a hue and cry over the findings claiming that they were not scientific. Some scientists went to the extent of claiming that there was no Arsenic in water in the affected areas. I wish they had done their tests before they made these claims. In any event they were of the opinion that the Kelaniya group was making these statements without conducting any so called research employing the METHOD.

The method that they referred to is called the scientific method in their jargon, though now I find that not only that there is no method as such as has been shown by Feyarabend, but the so called method is only a cover up for the falseness of the so called scientific theories. In fact when Popper said that scientific theories should be open for falsification, he was only giving a grandiose credential for theories which are in any case false. I explain all these in detail in a forthcoming book “Batahira Vidyava, Aresnic ha Devivaru”.

Now the group at Kelaniya did not hide the fact that they got the idea of Arsenic being present in soil and water from Natha Deviyo but they conducted research in order to verify or otherwise these revealing by Natha Deviyo and Vipassaka Deviyo whom in my opinion should have been awarded hundreds of Nobel Prizes for his findings. However, Vipassaka Deviyo is not interested in Prizes Noble, Nobel or otherwise and he would in any case not accept awards made by a dynamite vendor. The Kelaniya group did not ask anybody to accept their views simply because Devivaru had revealed them but to carry out research on their own. It has to be mentioned that there are several academics including two Professors and a research student who had been awarded a scholarship by the UGC to conduct research not only on the cause of the disease but on a cure as well. He is a lecturer from the Rajarata University and is a western medical doctor. The Kelaniya group was able to verify that there was Arsenic in water, soil and flora from the affected areas but some members of the staff including a person who has been warned by the University for releasing results of a candidate without marking the relevant answer script and a person who has been warned by the University for staying at home without reporting for duty after coming back to the country from special leave and spending her leave at home did not accept the findings of the group giving flimsy excuses such as there were no Analytical Chemists in the group. Another member of the staff claimed that the equipment at the University were out of order while claiming for other purposes that she had carried out experiment using the selfsame equipment. Then there were their kith and kin who told gatherings of parents of students that some of the members of the Kelaniya group were insane. Some of these accusers got round the minister of Higher Education to tell him that the group at Kelaniya had established a Devale at the university. I wonder whether he believed these stories but these facts have to be mentioned in order to give an indication of the difficulties the group faced.

Then the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science came out with an unprecedented statement to demean the activities of the Kelaniya group at the instigation of some “great scientists” in the country. The statement said among other things: “The SLAAS cannot comment on the truth of these claims, which have been investigated by other institutions better equipped to do so. Their results contradict the claims made by this group. ‘However, we wish to make the following observations on the scientific process for gaining and disseminating knowledge, in order to guide both the press and the general public.

Scientists obtaining new research results are expected to submit these results to other scientists for verification in a process called "peer review". This includes publishing, or presenting their results to fellow scientists, before releasing them to the general public. If the results are likely to have an impact on public policy or public well-being, it is particularly important that other scientists have an opportunity to verify or reproduce these results, the statement noted.

In this case, there has been no peer review of the results. It has been claimed that a new method was used to obtain certain results, but no evidence of validation of this method has been presented. Instead, there appears to have been an attempt to get quick publicity. Under the circumstances, the authorities, including the Ministry of Agriculture and the Registrar of Pesticides, have acted very responsibly in submitting samples to a duly accredited laboratory, the Industrial Technology Institute, for verification, the statement noted.

Even if arsenic is found in water and soil in the North Central Province, that does not constitute sufficient evidence to attribute causation of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) to arsenic. We urge that the detailed methods used, including the sampling of water sources, collection of samples, the analytical method used, its validation and detailed results, as well as the body of evidence published or presented for review as early as possible.

There is another serious issue which casts grave doubts on the credibility of the claims made by the Kelaniya group. The Press has publicly identified as the leader of this group an individual, who despite holding a responsible position, professes a disdain for "Western" science. He has publicly claimed supernatural revelations ("samyak drushtika devivaru’) as the source of his group’s information and even methods. While recognising that many scientists are deeply religious, the SLAAS wishes to state categorically that superstition and the supernatural have no place in science, and that scientific results inspired by such sources are highly suspect because of a probable bias on the part of the investigator, it said.

We also note that the other researchers in the group have yet to distance themselves from the eccentric statements of their leader, and they need to do this if they wish to be taken seriously as scientists. Finally, the SLAAS considers it extremely unfortunate that the Dean of a Science Faculty should make it his publicly stated aim to run down science and bring it into disrepute".

The (then) Dean and the leader of the group referred to is none other than the authour, and I have replied to these in lengthy articles to “The Island” on so called scientific method, peer reviewing and Devivaru. I am not concerned with so called peer reviewing and publishing in so called prestigious international journals though in my youth I was inclined to do so having published two articles in “Nature” and other journals. Publishing in these journals is good for promotions but for the last twenty five years or so I have published only with people in my mind. However, I must mention that the Kelaniya group did follow the “accepted” methods of sampling, analyzing etc.

In any event the WHO has now confirmed the findings of the Kelaniya group, though I am not particularly interested in their confirmation. It is unfortunate that the real leader of the group Prof. Priyani Paranagama, Prof. Mala Amarasinghe and the research student Dr. Channa Jaysumana and the Faculty of Science at Kelaniya were deprived of their due credit and recognition as a result of malicious scheming by some members of the Faculty itself and their friends. To add insult to injury some of them are now trying to make life difficult for Prof. Paranagama and Dr. Jayasumana but it is heartening to note that despite these obstacles they are now involved with finding a cure for this deadly disease needless to say with the help of Natha Deviyo and Vipassaka Deviyo who has treated me on several occasions with utmost success.

Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva