|
Declining environment hurts human health
as well
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam, May 3 (IPS) — The decline in
Vietnam’s rich biodiversity is hurting not just the environment
but its uses for human health, such as in the treatment of burns —
a field where the country’s scientists have done pioneering work
in.
Dr Le The Trung, who pioneered the use of frog skin in treating burn
victims, worries that the declining state of the environment has already
led to a scarcity of such skin.
“Now that frog skin is not always available, we must find other
materials. However, commonly available materials and technology for
treating burns involve long, drawn-out healing and high risk of infection,’’
Trung said. In a sign of greater international acceptance of Trung’s
approach, a group of 45 British doctors and scientists visited Vietnam
last year to learn the treatment technique from him.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people in Vietnam are injured by fires each
year. Of the many who suffer third-degree burns, half die because no
human skin is available for grafting. Frog skin has been used widely
and effectively to treat victims with less severe injuries.
But this material is in short supply since its source, the local amphibian
population, is at risk as loggers, shrimp farmers and industrial polluters
exploit large areas of the nation’s 11-million-hectare forest cover.
Population growth also adds to the toll.
Tropical mangrove forests, a prime habitat of frogs, are threatened
as local communities exploit marine resources and industries freely
dump toxic waste into the environment.
Vietnam has lost at least 220,000 hectares of mangrove forests since
1943, and the 175,000 hectares that remain today are threatened by serious
environmental abuses, campaigners say.
Thousands of hectares of mangroves in the southern province of Soc Trang,
for instance, are threatened by aquaculture development.
Before 1990, there were nearly 3,000 hectares of mangroves at the mouths
of three rivers, and the area formed the habitat and breeding ground
for fish, crustaceans and amphibians.
Frogs taken from this area alone could meet the demands of medical laboratories
in southern Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong River Delta.
But the biodiversity-rich mangrove forests were also a prime location
for raising giant tiger prawns. Farmers rushed in to join the boom and,
using advanced farming techniques, turned vast areas of mangroves into
prawn ponds. This threw the local ecosystem into crisis.
In the northern seaport of Hai Phong, environmentalists have strongly
criticized Ha Long Fisheries Co, which has cleared vast areas of swamps
and mangrove forests and replaced them with shrimp farms.
“The shrimp ponds block the flow of the tides, which means the
mangroves and aquatic creatures that live there will not have enough
water to survive,’’ said Mai Sy Tuan, from the Center for
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies.
The decline in the frog population is exacerbated by pollution in Vietnam’s
waterways.
In the Mekong Delta, about 10,000 cubic yards of household waste and
another 20,000 cubic yards of industrial waste are dumped into the Ca
Mau River and its tributaries every day. These waterways have become
brackish and aquatic life can hardly be seen.
“Without frog skin, we are forced to turn to more expensive ways,
including the use of composite membrane and skin taken from the patients
themselves,’’ Trung said.
He added that while these and other advanced procedures used by doctors
are effective, their cost and complexity often make them unviable options
in a developing country like Vietnam.
“We still prefer frog skin grafting,’’ he said. “It’s
economical, safe and easy.’’
Trung began developing this burn treatment technique after returning
to Vietnam from the former Soviet Union, where he received training
in the treatment of burns in 1961.
At the time, he heard about the use of frog skin to treat wounds, and
remembered that Vietnamese in the countryside also used frog flesh for
treating wounds, except that they usually failed to get rid of intestinal
flat worms that lay under the skin.
In May 1965, Trung had his first success in grafting skin from frogs
onto a 24-year-old woman suffering from burns. By 1994, before the method
received global airing through international workshops, he had treated
159 burn cases using this method.
Trung now looks forward to the establishment of the first human skin
bank in Vietnam, a need that for him has become imperative. “The
disappearance of frogs has only made the need more urgent,’’
he said.
“At present, the donation of body parts remains an alien concept
in Vietnam. But that could change if a draft law on the donation of
human tissues and organs is passed,’’ Trung explained.
He added: “Once the law is passed, donors’ tissues could be
a cheap alternative to frog skin in the treatment of burns.”
Global warming floods threaten UK
By Paul Brown
Apr. 22 — Risks of flooding are growing to “unacceptable
levels” because of climate change, with up to 4 million Britons
facing the prospect of their homes being inundated, according to a report
to be published today by the government.
The report by the Office of Science and Technology gives the most chilling
picture yet of how global warming will affect the lives of millions
of Britons over the next half century.
Compiled by 60 experts under the leadership of the government’s
chief scientist, Sir David King, it shows that many towns in Britain
are threatened by rising sea levels, river flooding and the overwhelming
of Victorian drains by flash floods.
The report, “Future Flooding,” looks forward to 2080 but says
that the threat is already growing and most of the worst of its predictions
will have happened by 2050.
As a result, it is vital to start planning new defenses and making long-term
decisions now to prevent future disasters. Sir David warned earlier
this year that global warming was a greater threat than terrorism.
New “green corridors” need to be created in cities as “safety
valves” into which floodwater can be channeled, the report says.
In some cases abandon ment of parts of urban areas, with councils buying
up properties to create new open areas to take floodwater, will be necessary.
“Some structures such as oil refineries could be relocated [inland].
However, other assets such as coastal towns will be difficult to relocate.
“In Wales and other parts of the UK, erosion could threaten beaches
and therefore tourism.”
The report puts a question mark over John Prescott’s cherished
plans to develop the Thames Gateway with 90,000 new homes, and the whole
area east of London which is at or below sea level.
The report says that in all planning flood risks must be taken into
account. Space must always be left to allow for river and coastal floodwaters.
In the Netherlands some developments are allowed if they are on stilts
and have an escape boat.
The report is the most comprehensive undertaken into the risks of flooding
in the UK, and probably the world, Sir David says, and shows that properties
will become uninsurable and many can expect at least a one-in-ten chance
of being flooded every year.
Towns on the east coast which suffered in the floods of 1953 are in
the area of highest risk, but the danger to Britain’s older cities
with Victorian sewerage systems is a newer problem. Drains are in danger
of being overwhelmed, spilling water and sewage into homes, as well
as being knocked out for weeks at a time -- as happened in recent floods
in central Europe.
The government has prepared an extensive response to the report, pointing
out that the Environment Agency is already looking at a replacement
for the Thames barrier, which is likely to be overwhelmed sometime after
2030. Higher sea walls along the embankment into London will also be
needed.
But the government will point out that there is no legal obligation
to defend property or land at all. “The aim is to reduce the risk
of flooding or coastal erosion where it is sustainable to do so and
where the proposed defense is economically, technically and environmentally
sound.”
Source: Guardian (UK)
|
