Panel to monitor and help Klity village

They will also organise a project to help educate children in the village and improve the villagers' occupational skills.

"We will detail what has happened to Klity village in Thongphaphum district and give updates of the latest information to the public," Chulalongkorn University's Social Research Institute director Surichai Wun'gaeo said last week. He spoke during a meeting to find ways to solve health and environmental problems, which have affected Klity villagers for 10 years.

The plan to keep the public informed about developments at Klity is a bid to force state agencies to keep helping villagers with their problems. Organisations had previously failed to provide continuous assistance.

The Lead Concentrate Co, operator of the Klity lead mine, has been blamed for contaminating in the village's creek and soil. The issue came to public attention in 1998 and the company was later ordered to shut down.

The meeting also backed a suggestion from Soontorn Supapong, a physician from the university's Faculty of Medicine, that the panel encourage personnel, such as psychologists, social workers and educational organisations to help children with delayed development and provide proper occupational training for villagers.

"We should educate villagers, especially children, to avoid activities that risk contact with lead in their environment," Soontorn said.

Surichai said they would conduct research, as well as help the villagers.

"Government agencies could rehabilitate the environment at the village and force the company to pay for the cost of rehabilitation, according to Article 96 of the 1992 Environmental Protection Act. And we want to see that," said Surachai Trongngam, a coordinator of Enlaw, the nonprofit organisation that acted as a legal representative for the villagers.

Blood tests on some villagers this year revealed that lead levels were down, compared to 1999, which was the first year Public Health officials started testing their blood.

Of 28 villagers tested, one child was found this year with blood lead levels higher than the standard 25.4 micrograms per decilitres (mcg/dL). No adults exceeded this amount.

In 1999, some 119 villagers had their blood tested. Children had blood lead levels of up to 36.04 mcg/dL and adults' blood lead levels up to 41.36 mcg/dL.

The ministry recommends that adults' blood lead levels do not exceed 40 mcg/dL, while the recommended maximum for children is 25 mcg/dL.