BRAIN DAMAGE FROM RIVER POISON

mor PAPERBACKS CENTRE Geologists have found enormous quanti ties of lead, zinc and oth er toxic metals in the Rivers Tawe and Neath and at Swansea Bay.

The findings by scientists from University College, Swansea, show the River Tawe itself as one of the main sources of metal pollution in the Bristol Channel and say the pollution is caused by industry.

Lead levels in the sediment samples from the Tawe are phenomenal and range up to 2,850 parts per million, about 100 times higher than in a natural background. In the River Neath the lead level was 420 parts per million, still 20 times the normal value.

Samples collected from three points in Swansea Bay showed the lead level to be 220 parts per million.

Lead is hardly less dangerous than mercury and, in children, is similar that at low intake levels it can selectively damage the brain.

It accumulates in bone even in its inorganic forms and has been shown to be damaging in every biological system in which it has been examined.

Lead has no known natural role in biological processes, and therefore is damaging to living things in whatever form it appears.

Natural lead mobilization amounts to about 150,000 tons a year. Industry unleashes over 4 million tons a year.

Of all the known contaminants, the levels of lead-as measured in the blood of ordinary people-are the highest. In fact, the range of levels found in urban populations is actually hizher than the range 28 Charlotte St London W1 BOOKS • PERIODICALS known to cause accepted toms of lead poisoning.

High copper levels were also found in the Tawe. Some samples contained so much copper—up to 2,215 parts per million-that they could almost be classified as low-grade ore.

Zinc, cadmium and silver readings ranged from 1,650, 60 and 24 parts per million respectively. Of these metals, the existence of cadmium is the most sinister.

It is highly poisonous and as a natural component of soils and water it is present only in very low concentrations.

But chronic exposure to relatively large amounts (i.e. a few parts per million) may after a number of years lead to painful and commonly fatal affliction in which the skeleton decays and collapses.

EWSPAPERS B3536 Writings of Leon Trotsky WRING OL EU WRITINGS One unique property of cadmium is that it is accumulated with enormous efficiency in the kidneys and is released and excreted only slowly.

Another property is that at extremely low levels the injection of cadmium into the bloodstream produces an immediate increase of blood pressure. This could result from the daily ingestion of only a few hundred micrograms.

Without doubt the source of the high concentrations of toxic metals in these Welsh rivers is industrial waste from the metal-processing plants alongside.

It could not be the result of draining into the rivers from upland areas because the rocks there are mainly unmineralized.

LEON TROTSKY (1939-40)

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