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Salud Bienestar

Senegal urged to clean toxic Dakar area after deaths


    By Stephanie Nebehay

    GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation urgedSenegal on Tuesday to decontaminate a poor area of Dakar whereit found nearly 1,000 residents remain exposed to highconcentrations of brain-damaging lead after 18 children died.

    International health and environmental experts carried outan investigation last week in the NGagne Diaw quarter ofThiaroye sur Mer, an area used for recycling lead batteries.

    "Many children are showing evidence of neurological damage.Environmental investigations have found very highconcentrations of lead both outside and inside people's homes,"the WHO said in a statement.

    Some 950 people in the area are "continuously exposedthrough ingestion and inhalation of lead-contaminated dust," itsaid. "Thorough decontamination of the affected area of NGagneDiaw, including the insides of homes, is a high priority."

    Senegal needs urgent technical and financial assistancefrom the international community for the clean-up, the WHOsaid.

    Senegal's health ministry reported to the WHO in March thata total of 18 children died between last October and February,WHO spokeswoman Sari Setiogi said.

    Many community members in NGagne Diaw were directly engagedin battery-recycling, she said. "It is their source of income."

    Siblings and mothers of the dead children had "extremelyhigh blood level concentrations" -- in many cases more than 10times the level which may impair neurological development,according to the Geneva-based United Nations agency.

    Adults and children not directly involved in lead recyclingalso showed dangerously high levels.

    Senegalese children with high lead exposure may needchelation therapy, which removes heavy metals from the body,the statement said. But the WHO warned the treatment would be"ineffective and may exacerbate toxicity" in children who arestill exposed to lead.

    The agency has provided chelating agents and its clinicaltoxicologist has started training local medical staff, it said.

    (Editing by Laura MacInnis and Richard Balmforth)