Source: TW
Afghanistan has one of the world’s highest rates of childhood lead exposure, which causes permanent brain damage. Nearly all children here have significant lead poisoning.
Researchers in the US have found the source of the lead. But nobody has told the Afghan public.
A worldwide survey in 2020 found that one in three children had blood lead above 5 micrograms per deciliter (μg/dL). That’s considered the threshold for lead poisoning.
Children in Afghanistan have an 𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 blood lead level of 14.2 μg/dL, nearly three times the cutoff. (Wikipedia: “Lead poisoning”) And the vast majority of Afghan kids have blood lead above the 5 μg/dL level.
Compare that to the worst recent case of lead poisoning in the United States, which happened a few years ago in the city of Flint, Michigan. Flint water crisis - Wikipedia
Roughly 100,000 people in Flint were exposed to elevated lead levels from the municipal water supply.
The affected families won hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and public officials were prosecuted. There are different estimates of exactly how much harm was done.
But according to some studies the share of young children in Flint with blood lead levels above 5 μg/dL may have been around 5 percent.
That was still considered a public health emergency—and for good reason.
Lead exposure in children causes irreversible losses in intelligence.
It also predicts violent behavior in adulthood.
Some people think the fall in US crime rates in the 1990s was partly caused by the ban on lead paint and the phaseout of leaded gasoline, which both began two decades earlier.
Lead has damaging effects on other organ systems too.
According to the WHO, some of its hazards include “increased risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems and kidney damage”.
So if Afghanistan has one of the world’s worst lead exposure problems, people should know where the lead is coming from. There are a few possible suspects.
South Asia as a whole has the world’s highest burden of lead poisoning.
And in Bangladesh the problem turned out to be turmeric (زردچوبه).
The spice was being adulterated with lead chromate, a pigment that makes it a brighter shade of yellow.
What happened in Bangladesh was ultimately a success story. Source: TW
It showed that when a major source of lead contamination can be located, the problem is sometimes easy to fix.
I think that may be true in Afghanistan too, but the evidence has been overlooked.
The cosmetic use of kohl (سرمه) is another risk factor for lead exposure in this part of the world.
Kohl is supposed to be powdered stibnite (antimony sulfide).
But stibnite looks very similar to galena (lead sulfide), and the two minerals are often found in the same locations.
So kohl sold in India tends to have very high levels of lead. Source: TW
Kohl is banned in the United States for just that reason.
Nobody knows whether turmeric, kohl, or any of the other spices and cosmetics sold in Afghanistan contain dangerous amounts of lead. That’s because they’ve never been tested. But it would be a good idea if someone tried.
In Bangladesh, the adulteration of turmeric with lead pigment mostly stopped after government inspectors began spot checks at the country’s spice markets, using handheld XRF spectrometers.+++(5)+++
But that isn’t the most urgent priority for Afghanistan, where the major source of lead exposure is probably already known.
It just isn’t known here.
Since 2019, health officials in Seattle have been finding elevated blood lead levels in Afghan immigrant and refugee children.
And in 2022, four local researchers published a paper in the 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 & 𝘌𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘌𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 which solved the mystery.
The lead is coming from cooking pots the families brought with them from Afghanistan.
The most hazardous pots tested were a type of aluminum pressure cooker called a 𝘬𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘯 (کازان).
These are a standard item in many Afghan kitchens, and it’s been hard to convince some immigrant families in Seattle to stop using them.
But the authors’ “simulated cooking and storage” tests released very high levels of dissolved lead.
(Amusingly, they didn’t pressurize the 𝘬𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘯𝘴 for the tests because they were afraid they might explode. So the lead levels produced by actual cooking might be even higher.)
Chris Ingalls, of Seattle’s KING 5 television channel, has been following this story since the article appeared.
It was newsworthy for non-Afghans because at the time, some online retailers were selling imported 𝘬𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘯𝘴.
Eventually the press coverage forced them to stop.
The US Food and Drug Administration has now issued an “import alert” against Rashko Baba, the dominant manufacturer of 𝘬𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘯𝘴.
And the state of Washington has passed legislation to tighten controls on lead in cookware.
Ingalls deserves a great deal of credit for all this.
So does Afghan Health Initiative (), a Seattle-area nonprofit supporting the immigrant community.
And so do the researchers who originally identified the 𝘬𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘯𝘴 as the source of lead poisoning in local Afghan children.
But why does no one else know?
Afghan Health Initiative https://afghanhealth.org/
I don’t think Afghans in California or Virginia have heard about this threat.
Much more importantly: Afghans in Afghanistan weren’t told anything either.
Children here are less intelligent than children in most countries, because of something their mothers cook with every day.
And the most incredible aspect of the story is that it could have been told years ago, before the Seattle researchers even completed their study.
In January 2020 Radio Azadi, the Pashto service of RFE/RL, filmed a short video inside Rashko Baba’s 𝘬𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘯 factory in Nangarhar.
Tens of thousands of people have seen workmen melting down car engines and radiators to cast into Afghanistan’s leading brand of pressure cooker.
But nobody seems to have pointed out that anything cooked in those pots will be unfit for human consumption.+++(5)+++
The IEA should close the Rashko Baba plant tomorrow. Arresting the company’s owners wouldn’t be a bad idea either. But any aluminum 𝘬𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘯 made in Afghanistan or Pakistan is probably recycled scrap metal.
According to the Seattle researchers, this is how it works in Africa:
“Investigations in Cameroon and other West African countries found that the smelting process often used drinking cans, car and motorbike engine parts, vehicle radiators, transmissions, airplane fuselages, lead batteries, computer and electronic components, and other materials.”
So if you own one of these things, destroy it.
You can buy pressure cookers made from stainless steel, and they won’t poison your children’s brains.
NOTES:
Dangerous cookware still for sale despite warnings from King County health experts A KING 5 investigation reveals imported cookware with dangerous lead for sale on Amazon and other online marketplaces. Source: TW
Global Lead Pollution Map LeadPollution.org is envisioned as a site for policymakers and the public alike to find, understand, and interpret data about the pollution crisis affecting us all. Source: TW
Despite an incoming Washington state law, lead-ridden imported cookware remains for sale State officials are still figuring out how it will identify and purchase dangerous cookware when the new law takes effect in 2026. Source: TW
Amazon removes potentially dangerous cookware from website Afghan pressure cookers are no longer available for sale on Amazon after a KING 5 investigation revealed some of the cookware contained lead. Source: TW
Cookware containing dangerous amounts of lead still being sold online after expert warnings Tests by the health department and the University of Washington showed lead in six of the seven cookpots purchased by KING 5. Source: TW
Props also to @_alice_evans, whose recent post on her excellent sub*tack, “The Great Gender Divergence”, inspired me to try and figure out what was going on