Burmese Medicines Sickened Refugee Children
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U.S. health officials have found lead and arsenic in traditional Burmese
medications used by refugee families. Are children back in Burma also
affected?
BANGKOK and WASHINGTON, March 31, 2009-Burmese children in the United
States who took two commonly used household medications from Burma were
found to have high levels of lead and arsenic in their blood, Radio Free
Asia (RFA) reports.
The poisoning was discovered in 32 Burmese refugee children who were
resettled in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the United States from refugee
camps in Thailand.
"All refugees are tested when they come into the country for several
things," said Loraine Hagerty, special projects manager of the St.
Joseph Community Health Foundation, which has been helping the Fort
Wayne refugees.
"It was found that there were a number of Burmese refugee children who
had tested positive for lead poisoning," said Hagerty, whose
organization works closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) to run the tests.
"And when additional tests were conducted on their arrival in Indiana,
we found more instances of lead poisoning amongst the Burmese refugee
children," she told RFA's Burmese service.
Indiana-based Burmese doctor Khin Mar Oo said follow-up tests were
currently under way on the affected children.
Homes surveyed
"When tests were conducted by the schools, they found that the lead
levels in the Burmese refugee children were quite high," Khin Mar Oo,
who runs an organization helping Burmese refugees in Fort Wayne, said.
"At first it was thought that these lead levels were brought about
during their stay on the Thai-Burma border," she said.
"But then they found that ... not only were the lead levels high in the
Burmese refugee children who had come from Thailand, but also in some of
the refugee children born in the U.S."
Health-care workers and medical experts from the CDC visited the homes
of the affected children in early February to look for clues in their
environment, diet, and medications.
Tests on building materials and drinking water yielded no evidence of
lead or arsenic, so experts began questioning the children about their
daily routines, Hagerty said.
"We actually went from door to door and asked them a lot of questions
about the products that they use in their homes, habits that their
children have, what they drink and eat and what kinds of medication they
took, taking samples of their medication and testing them at the
laboratories," she said.
Children's medicine pinpointed
The source of the lead and arsenic was finally narrowed down to two
types of Burmese medicine called "Daw Tway" and "Daw Kyin" medicines,
specifically aimed at children. The two medicines are commonly used in
rural households all over Burma.
An official who answered the phone in the national food and drug
administration of Burma's Health Ministry said he was unaware of the
problem.
"[We] did not pass those medicines," he said. "Maybe it went through the
department of indigenous medicines."
U Tin Nyunt, director general of Burma's department of indigenous
medicines, said the remedies could have come out before 2007.
"I don't think these medicines are what we have on the market today," he
said.
"They are most likely to be medicines from earlier times ... We have
machines that can test heavy metals in medicines, and if they are found
in medicines we will revoke the production license of the producer," he
said.
'No announcements' heard
But he said he had been unable to crack down on substandard medications
produced before he took office.
"Since I took over responsibility here we have absolutely not permitted
this at all," he said. "We are doing all of this within the policies and
regulations."
The packaging on the two medicines found among the Burmese refugees in
Indiana was dated September 2007.
A housewife based in the former capital, Rangoon, said she had seen no
media reports concerning these medicines.
"People living in rural areas, especially the parents of children, are
still using these medicines," she said. "They are still selling these
medicines."
Cheap alternative
"There have been no announcements with regard to these medicines. When I
heard this, I was quite alarmed because the children depend on these
medicines," she said.
These traditional remedies, at about 50 kyat (a few U.S. cents), were
far cheaper than a visit to a clinic or hospital, which could run into
thousands of kyat, she said.
A total of 12,000 children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning among
refugee communities in the U.S. states of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky,
Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri, according to health sources.
The CDC is expected to release a detailed report next month on the
reasons for the lead poisoning among U.S. refugee families.
Common problem
Issues such as this are not uncommon among refugees, said Steve Weil,
co-founder of the Virginia-based nonprofit Coalition for Environmentally
Safe Communities.
"There are any number of these products," said Weil, whose organization
is working with Denver-based Mercy Housing to conduct workshops aimed at
educating U.S. health and refugee workers around the country about lead
poisoning.
The workshops are funded by the U.S. Health and Human Services
department. The last of three workshops is scheduled for April 2 in
Indianapolis, Weil said.
Remedies originating abroad are often inconsistent in their lead
content, with one batch containing toxic lead levels and another with
little or none, Weil said.
Original reporting by Nyi Nyi and Kyaw Min Htun for RFA's Burmese
service. Translated by Soe Thinn. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe.
Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and produced in English by
Luisetta Mudie and Sarah Jackson-Han.
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and
publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian
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WASHINGTON, March 12, 2009-The wife and children of a top civil rights
lawyer under close surveillance by the Chinese authorities have arrived
in the United States after walking across the border to Thailand, Gao
Zhisheng's wife Geng He has told Radio Free Asia (RFA).
Geng said her daughter, 15, and son, 5, had suffered "great hardship" in
China from living under virtual house arrest in their Beijing home.
"I left China because my family had been under tight surveillance for a
long time. We experienced-in our careers and daily life-great hardship
and difficulty," Geng told RFA's Mandarin service in her first interview
since arriving in the United States on March 11 to seek asylum.
"My daughter was unable to attend school. Because she was unable to
attend school, she tried to commit suicide several times," Geng said. "I
had no place to turn. So I fled with my children."
Geng said she had left a note for Gao, an Army veteran who lost his law
license after he criticized the government for its treatment of the
banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Gao began a rolling hunger strike among fellow civil rights activists to
protest the ill-treatment of lawyers and rights activists at the hands
of police and local government officials.
"I left a note for my husband that I was leaving with the children,"
Geng said.
"I said in my note that our daughter is miserable because she couldn't
attend school. I said I was miserable and I had to take the kids and
leave," said Geng, in tears.
Dangerous route through Thailand
Geng and her children left China on Jan. 9 and arrived in Thailand on
Jan. 16, leaving for the United States on March 10.
Describing the family's dramatic escape, Geng said they first left
Beijing very quietly, unnoticed by the state security police who usually
followed them.
"We could not travel by air. We took a train," Geng said, adding that
Gao was unable to accompany them because he couldn't throw off the
police on his tail.
"Eventually, with the help of friends, we freed ourselves from police
surveillance and we walked to another country," she said.
Geng said friends who helped her leave China were members of the banned
Falun Gong spiritual movement.
"We walked day and night. It was extremely hard. I did not even know the
names of some of the towns we passed through."
"It was extraordinarily difficult to get us out of China. The friends
who helped us escape took enormous pains, some even risking their own
lives," Geng said.
She said she hadn't been in touch with Gao since leaving China.
"On Feb. 4, when we had arrived in the second country, I heard from a
friend that he had been detained. I am very worried," said Geng, who has
no idea of Gao's whereabouts.
'Very fragile state'
Now in the United States, Geng said she has few specific plans.
"The first step is to get here and to give my daughter a chance to heal
her mental scars," she said.
"She is in a very fragile state. When she feels better, I will arrange
for her to get an education. It's important to get an education."
She said her son asked repeatedly for Gao, and whether his father had
been sent to prison again.
Gao's whereabouts remained unclear for months after he was subjected to
a secret trial by the authorities on unspecified subversion charges in
2006.
Lauded by China's own Justice Ministry as one of China's Top 10 lawyers
in 2001 for his pro bono work in helping poor people sue government
officials over corruption and mistreatment, Gao was once a member of the
ruling Chinese Communist Party. He resigned from the Party in 2005.
Gao's fortunes took a sharp downturn after he wrote an open letter to
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in October 2005 urging them
to end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, detailing a range of
abuses they suffer in custody, including torture, beatings, and
execution.
Report on abuses
In its most recent report on human rights around the world, the U.S.
State Department noted that Gao's whereabouts remained unknown.
It also noted the authorities had revoked the professional licenses of
several prominent lawyers, including Gao and of Teng Biao, who offered
to represent Tibetans taken into custody for their role in the March
2008 Tibetan uprising in Lhasa.
"Government-employed lawyers often refused to represent defendants in
politically sensitive cases, and defendants frequently found it
difficult to find an attorney," the report said.
"Officials deployed a wide range of tactics to obstruct the work of
lawyers representing sensitive clients, including unlawful detentions,
disbarment, intimidation, refusal to allow a case to be tried before a
court, and physical abuse."
Original reporting in Mandarin by Tang Qiwei. Mandarin service director:
Jennifer Chou. Written for the Web in English. Edited by Sarah
Jackson-Han.
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and
publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian
languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news
media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion
and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of
Governors.
If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to
engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add
your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to
engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> #####
Sarah Jackson-Han
News Director, English
Radio Free Asia (RFA)
jacksonhans(a)rfa.org
202 530 7774 w
202 907 4613 m
