Poison

WE ARE seeing a different kind of nuclear fallout from Japan.  After the earthquake last week, two of the Japanese nuclear plants began to leak.  By Monday, text messages were going around that radiation was reaching the Philippines and that people should stay indoors or, if they needed to venture out, they should wear raincoats.  Other text messages urged people to buy Betadine (povidone-iodine) to swab on their necks, to protect the thyroid gland.

You would think people would be less gullible and see through the messages as hoaxes, but the Polytechnic University of the Philippines went as far as suspending classes.

The Department of Health and the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Nuclear Research Institute  have taken pains to issue their own statements assuring the public that there are no “immediate” threats to the Philippines. You can check the PNRI website (www.pnri.dost.gov.ph) for updates.

My view is that we shouldn’t worry right now about radioactivity reaching the Philippines, but our government should continue to be vigilant.  Even if the radioactivity is localized in Japan, it could still contaminate food products that might eventually get here.  After the nuclear plant explosion in Chernobyl, Russia, in 1986 some powdered milk products had to be banned because they were contaminated with cesium, a radioactive element.

<STRONG>Tragedy at home</STRONG>

I am amazed, though, at how we can work ourselves into such a panic with radioactivity and yet be so cavalier about the risks of day to day poisoning in our households.  The idea for writing about this more immediate threat came before the earthquake in Japan and was spurred by a terrible poisoning tragedy at home.

About two weeks ago, I began noticing our 18-year-old cat becoming rather listless.  It was a beautiful white cat that, despite its age, would strut around regally, marking out its territory. Two dogs I had just brought in would flee when they saw it coming.  Now it refused to eat, was constantly thirsty and kept itself to dark corners in the house.

This went on for two days.  I would coax it to eat and sometimes it would take a few bites and then go off again into some corner. Then late one night I found it in the laundry area, with blood coming out of its mouth and nostrils.  I suspected poisoning but couldn’t figure out where from.  I cleaned it up, trying to comfort it and planning to bring it to the vet the next day.  It responded, purring very weakly.

It didn’t last the night. There was no time to grieve the next morning since I had to rush off to UP.  Driving with a heavy heart, I tried to figure out what had caused the cat’s death, and then suddenly the pieces came together.  The bleeding and the sensitivity to light were classic signs of the effects of rat poisons. The missing piece in this puzzle was my remembering seeing a box of rat poison in my father’s room a few days earlier.  I had made a mental note to warn him to be careful with the poison especially because of the kids in the house.  Now it was too late for the cat.

I called home from the university and my father insisted he hadn’t used the poison, so who knows, maybe it came from another source. I told him to dispose of it anyway, properly, because I was worried about my children getting to it.

It is a running battle trying to convince people, especially older ones, that so many household products that we take for granted can cause serious problems.  Rat poisons don’t just poison rats, they can kill pets, including, ironically, the cats that could be controlling the rats and mice.  Pets get poisoned either by ingesting the poison directly or through secondary means, meaning when it catches and eats one of the rats or mice that have already been poisoned.

I can understand why Filipinos love these household products.  Many grew up in fear of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases (including, these days, dengue) and saw DDT, and then insecticides (still referred to as DDT by older people) as the miracle life-saver.

Many homes have an arsenal of such poisons, several spray cans of insecticides all lined up, each with its own specialized function: flying insects, crawling insects and rat poisons.

Each product has a warning on the label, which of course no one ever reads.  The bottom line for the insecticides, including those limited to “natural” ingredients (pyrethrins), is that they are harmful if swallowed, inhaled or if there’s skin contact.  But how many people leave the room after spraying?  How careful are we, too, about covering food and beverages before spraying?

The cans also all warn about keeping the products away from children and pets, yet I have seen them stored on the floor, almost inviting crawling babies to pick them up.

The products do have advice on what you can do in case of poisoning.  Vitamin K for rat poisons.  Atropine sulfate for certain insecticides.  Others simply advise medical help with some vague reference to “appropriate treatment.”   Sure.  Go to a drugstore and ask the pharmacists about the antidotes—  vitamin K and atropine have to be injected, and rather soon after the poisoning.   But the rat poison works slowly, over days, so by the time there is bleeding, it is usually too late.

I have only talked about the acute effects of these poisons.  The insecticides have many other chronic effects, including aggravating respiratory ailments.  Yet I know people who love the smell of katol (mosquito coils), unaware that their asthma attacks and coughing fits might be triggered by the fumes.

In rural areas, the pesticides used in rice fields, and stored at home, are even worse, with possible cancer-causing effects.  It’s not surprising that pesticides are the preferred method for suicides in rural areas.

<STRONG>Alternatives</STRONG>

There are alternatives to these poisons.  In my own house I manage very well without all these sprays, relying instead on complete screening of the house and cleanliness.   In my parents’ home though, there are constant negotiations over these chemicals.  I have a tacit agreement with my father not to have my room and the children’s rooms sprayed, and I have tried to discourage the sprays for my mother’s room as well especially because she’s recovering from a stroke, and has many other geriatric problems.

And the rats and mice?  In cities they tend to live in the space below the roof and your ceilings, squeezing their way through the smallest of spaces, including where you have your television cables coming in, into our homes.  Plugging these holes can be effective but the tiniest of mice will still find their way through.

Which is why cats are so important.  The last few days, I have been constantly reminded of their indispensable role in vermin control.  In the middle of the night, I wake up and find myself listening hard and then feeling terribly saddened by the silence, missing the sounds of the cat running on the roof.

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