Waste Dump Poisoning Children and Environment

Waste Dump Poisoning Children and Environment



October 2007

 One of Africa's largest waste 
dumps, the Dandora Municipal Dumping Site in Nairobi, is a threat to the 
health of children living nearby and the city's environment, a new study 
shows. Tests found high levels of lead and other heavy metals in the blood 
of area children, who also suffer from respiratory diseases, including 
chronic bronchitis and asthma. 
Dandora, located in a low-income residential area about eight kilometers 
(five miles) east of Nairobi center, is the main dumping site for most of 
the solid waste generated by the 4.5 million people living in the Kenyan 
capital. The study was commissioned by the UN Environment Programme, UNEP, 
which has its headquarters in Nairobi. 

Over 2,000 metric tonnes of waste are deposited daily at the 30 acre 
Dandora dump, and what initially was to be the refilling of an old quarry 
has given rise to an enormous mountain of garbage. 
Dumping at the site is unrestricted. Industrial, agricultural, domestic 
and medical wastes - including used syringes - are strewn all over the 
site. Plastics, rubber and lead paint treated wood, hazardous waste 
containing poisonous chemicals were found on the dumpsite. 
The Nairobi River passes by the dump and some of the waste makes its way 
into the river, which carries these environmental and health risks to 
communities near the dump and downstream who may be using the water for 
irrigation of food products and in their homes. 
Every day, scores of people, including children, from the nearby slums and 
low-income residential areas use the dump to find food, recyclables and 
other valuables they can sell as a source of income. As they pick over the 
garbage, they are inhaling the noxious fumes from routine waste burning 
and methane fires. 
The study examined 328 children from two to 18 years of age living around 
the Dandora waste dump. 
Half the children tested had blood lead levels equal to or exceeding the 
internationally accepted action levels of 10 micrograms per decilitre of 
blood, including two children with concentrations of over 29 and 32 
micrograms. 
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, "We had anticipated some tough 
and worrisome findings, but the actual results are even more shocking than 
we had imagined at the outset." 
The children have been exposed to pollutants such as heavy metals and 
toxic substances through soil, water and smoke from waste burning with 
implications for respiratory, gastrointestinal and dermatological or skin 
diseases. 
Low hemoglobin levels and iron deficiency anemia, some of the known 
symptoms of lead poisoning, were detected in 50 and 30 percent of the 
children, respectively. 

Exposure to high lead levels is also linked with damage to the nervous 
system and the brain, while cadmium poisoning causes damage to internal 
organs, especially kidneys, and cancers. 
Almost half of the children tested were suffering from respiratory 
diseases, including chronic bronchitis and asthma. 
"The Dandora site may pose some special challenges for the city of Nairobi 
and Kenya as a nation. But it is also a mirror to the condition of rubbish 
sites across many parts of Africa and other urban centers of the 
developing world," Steiner said. 
Steiner said UNEP stands ready to assist the local and national 
authorities in the search for improved waste management systems and 
strategies including ones that generate sustainable and healthier jobs in 
the waste handling and recycling sectors. 
"It is clear that urgent action is needed to reduce the health and 
environmental hazards so that children and adults can go about their daily 
lives without fear of being poisoned and without damage to nearby river 
systems," he said. 
The St. John's Catholic Church and Informal School is located close to the 
dump. Between 2003 and 2006, the Church dispensary has treated 9,121 
people per year on average for respiratory problems. 
"We have been witnessing an alarming situation regarding Dandora 
children's health - asthma, anaemia and skin infections are by now 
endemic," said Njoroge Kimani, principal investigator and author of the 
report, who serves as a clinical biochemist at Kenyatta Hospital. 
"These abnormalities are linked to the environment around the dumping 
site, and are exacerbated by poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition. Since 
waste dumping is unrestricted and unmanaged, people are also at risk from 
contracting blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis and HIV/AIDS," said 
Kimani.

Experts from the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Kenyatta 
National Hospital and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute as well as 
local community leaders from St. John's Catholic Church in Korogocho have 
supported the study, which was written with support from Rob de Jong of 
UNEP's Urban Environment Unit. 
The study also compared soil samples from the site with samples from 
another location just outside of Nairobi. Tests showed 42 percent of soil 
samples had lead levels 10 times higher than what is considered unpolluted 
soil - more than 400 parts per million, ppm, compared to a safe level of 
50 ppm. 
Soil and water samples were analyzed for heavy metals, such as lead, 
mercury, cadmium and chromium, and persistent organic pollutants, 
including polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs and pesticides. Blood and urine 
samples were analyzed for the same pollutants and for signs of diseases 
associated with them. 
The results show dangerously high levels of heavy metals, especially lead, 
mercury and cadmium, at the dumpsite, in the surrounding environment and 
in local residents. Lead and cadmium levels found on the dumpsite were 
13,500 ppm and 1,058 ppm, respectively, compared to the action levels in 
The Netherlands of 150 ppm/5 ppm for these heavy metals. 
One soil sample from the banks of Nairobi River indicates high levels of 
mercury. Tests showed over 18 ppm against the safe level of two ppm. The 
soil surface samples also recorded cadmium concentration 50 times higher 
than in unpolluted soil - 53 ppm compared to the safe level of one ppm. 
According to World Health Organization, a quarter of all diseases 
affecting the humankind are attributable to environmental risks, with 
children more vulnerable than adults. Among children under five, 
environmentally-related illnesses are responsible for more than 4.7 
million deaths annually. Twenty-five percent of deaths in developing 
countries are related to environmental factors, compared with 17 percent 
of deaths in the developed world. 
"The children of Dandora, Kenya, Africa and the world deserve better than 
this. We can no longer afford rubbish solutions to the waste management 
crisis faced in far too many cities, especially in the developing world," 
said Steiner. 
The study urges expediting decision-making on the waste dump in an 
economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner. 
Father Daniele Moschetti, a Comboni missionary priest working with the 
local community in the slums surrounding the dumpsite, said, "The poor are 
the best recyclers in the world; nothing of value goes to waste. But this 
should not put them and their families' lives in danger. 
"The local community is advocating for a closing and relocation of the 
dumpsite, whereby a controlled and well-managed waste processing facility 
should be established. This will not only reduce health and environment 
impacts but also generate jobs and income for the local community," said 
Father Moschetti. 
"Many local peoples' livelihoods depend on Dandora's wastes. The challenge 
is to minimize - indeed halt - the level of hazardous materials coming to 
the tip in the first place and better treatment of toxic and medical 
wastes before they arrive," said Steiner. 
"We also need to deliver safe and sustainable conditions for the people 
working on, and living near, the site," he said. "For the foreseeable 
future, growing amounts of waste may be inevitable but we should learn how 
to better assist poor people who depend on this waste and promote the 
recycling and reuse of this waste as a safer economic opportunity." 

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