The world's torrid future is etched in the crippled kidneys of Nepali workers (WaPo)

[femmedem]

"JANAKPUR, Nepal — Head nurse Rani Jha circled around her busy kidney ward, reeling off the list of patients who were too young, too sick, too many to count.

There, lying against the far wall, was Tilak Kumar Shah, who had worked in construction for seven years in the Persian Gulf before collapsing. The next bed had belonged to Mohan Yadav, who had labored in Qatar — until he died two weeks earlier. Next to Jha’s cubicle, huddling quietly under a blanket, was another typical case: Suraj Thapa Magar, a shy 28-year-old who had left his mud hut in Nepal to install windows on skyscrapers in Kuwait, often dangling by a rope in the scorching, 120-degree purgatory between the sun and the desert.

In recent years, scientists and groups including the International Labor Organization have increasingly warned about the deadly, yet often overlooked, link between exposure to extreme heat and chronic kidney disease. Exactly how heat scars and cripples the microscopic tubes in the organs is still debated, researchers say, but the correlation is clear.

That link has been observed among workers toiling in rice fields in Sri Lanka and steamy factories in Malaysia, from Central America to the Persian Gulf. As the world grows hotter and climate change ushers in more frequent and extreme heat waves, public health experts fear kidney disease cases will soar among laborers who have no choice but to work outdoors."

More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/06/climate-change-heat-kidney-disease/ (Paywall)

[niyad]

1. There are no words.

[Native]

2. Between reading this yesterday and the story about the 6 year old

I was emotionally tapped out. No words is so right.

[femmedem]

7. I felt the same way when I read it.

I'm glad WaPo is shining a light on the ways the world's poorest people are suffering the first, worst repercussions i-and warning us of what is to come for the rest of us if we don't rapidly change our ways.

[Phoenix61]

3. It's not the heat as much as this....

“Because elevators were not operational, he recounted, he had to walk several stories to access water. But with work schedules so pressing, most workers gathered around the water tank only during their one-hour break. On many days, the water would be gone before the break ended. Often, Suraj didn’t drink anything all day.”

[Lonestarblue]

9. Too many workers are deprived of the regular water they need to stay healthy.

In the US, those who work on fast-paced meat processing or other assembly line do not get frequent breaks and thus the opportunity to drink water. Bathroom breaks are also rare, so workers don’t drink water. All to line then pockets of some of the wealthiest people in the world. Truly disgusting.

[NutmegYankee]

4. Probably chronic dehydration.

People need to drink water continuously in heat like that, but shift work prevents it.

[femmedem]

6. Yes, I think you're right.

Although at a certain point, no amount of water will save us.

[underpants]

5. 👀

Reading later. Thanks.

[Joinfortmill]

8. Oh, my God.

[femmedem]

10. My reaction, too.

Equal parts horror and grief.

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Not so sure it is just the heat. Round Up maybe involved too

"According to scientists, kidney damage was observed to occur following the regular use of Roundup in a group of people in Sri Lanka who were growing rice."

People have been living and working in the heat for hundreds of thousands of years. I doubt it is just the heat that is doing this.

The combination of Round Up, heat and hard water is the toxic brew for kidney failure.

"Kidney disease was first reported in Sri Lanka workers who had been using Roundup in 1990 when several hundreds of individuals were diagnosed with kidney failure, even though none had the common trigger factors of diabetes or high blood pressure. The majority of the people who experienced kidney failure were male farmers between the ages of 30 and 60."


The most common way of exposure to the glyphosate in Roundup is by inhalation or ingestion while you are using the herbicide. However, exposure can also occur when one consumes food that has been treated with Roundup.

"Although very effective in killing weeds, the product is very dangerous to our health, as exposure can lead to multiple serious diseases, including kidney and liver problems. However, it is important to keep in mind that several years after the first exposure must pass in order for a health issue to develop, as the glyphosate gradually causes damage to the organs."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.atraxialaw.com/news/roundup-serious-kidney-liver-problems/amp/

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. "People have been living and working in the heat for hundreds of thousands of years."

Not at the scale and pace they are now.

[Jedi Guy]

17. For agricultural laborers, I'm sure Roundup isn't doing them any favors.

However, I don't see how you can draw a correlation regarding the people working on these skyscrapers in Kuwait and the UAE since there's a very low likelihood that they're working with/around that particular chemical. I'm sure there are many chemicals dangerous to human health on construction sites, but I don't imagine Roundup is one of them. The obvious conclusion is that exposure to extreme heat plus lack of access to water results in severe, chronic dehydration. That will do tremendous damage to the human body all on its own.

The immigrant laborers are on the bottom of the social pyramid of the wealthier Middle Eastern countries and are, for all intents and purposes, slaves insofar as their treatment is concerned. They're used and abused and the Kuwaitis/Emiratis don't give a damn if they die. There are always more clamoring to get in, and it's laughably easy for such wealthy people to pay a dead worker's family a pittance in exchange for their silence to make the problem go away.

[Farmer-Rick]

21. Yeah, probably but Round Up is in most foods today

It is used on most rice, wheat, corn and soy beans. So, we are all eating it. Combine that with higher heat and hard water and you get kidney failure.

Most GMOs are Round Up ready. In the US, it is nearly impossible to get GMO free animal feed. You have to get it from Europe. Most farmers can't afford that extra charge for that expensive feed being shipped from other countries. So most meat raised in the US is eating Round Up too.

[TeamProg]

12. A lot of construction in Dubai is done at night. " We're tortured every night by building work"

We're tortured every night by building work - residents

Construction work on new buildings and Metro sites banned after 8pm
Published: May 03, 2009 23:37 By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Many residents in some parts of Dubai are getting frustrated because of continuous construction work on new buildings and Dubai Metro sites.

A resident on Al Rigga Street in Dubai said: "The construction work on Dubai Metro projects continues round-the-clock. There is no let-up despite the fact that we complained to the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Dubai Municipality."

He called up Dubai Municipality's complaint number and was told they had nothing to do with it because the Metro project belongs to the RTA.

"There are schoolchildren, sick people, old people, and people who have to go to offices. All of us are suffering on this street. We know the Metro project is very important but please give us relief at least between 11pm to 6am to get some sleep," he said.

Jameela Qureshi, a resident in Karama, said construction work is being carried out throughout the night and she can hear the noise even if her windows are closed.

"We are 'tortured' every night by the construction work on the Metro project and the nearby under construction buildings."

An official at Dubai Municipality said the civic body had set rules for night construction work. Fawzi Mohammad Al Shehi, Head of the Engineering Supervision Section at the Buildings Department told Gulf News that normal construction activities are allowed between 6am to 8pm.

"Construction permission is given for extended hours at night under special circumstances but even then construction companies are asked to keep the noise level very low," said Al Shehi.

An RTA official said the Dubai Metro Agency at the RTA has already instructed its contractors and sub-contractors to keep the noise level down.

According to the official, the RTA is conducing an audit of Dubai Metro construction activities.



https://gulfnews.com/uae/were-tortured-every-night-by-building-work---residents-1.131099

[NullTuples]

13. This is what uncontrolled greed tends to do.

And each of us feeds into it by supporting the economic system that grants them power.

Problem is, I don't know what any one individual - aka, each of us - can do about it, and that's very much by design.

[calimary]

16. Well, we can start making noise about it.

Evil loves operating in the shadows where no one can see and few are looking. That’s what WE shine a light on it and expose it to the open air so it can’t be as easily hidden.

[NullTuples]

18. One might even say we have a moral imperative to do so. Not to mention self preservation.

"First they came for..." and all that applies to unrestrained greed as it does bigotry (which really is based on emotional greed, but I digress).

[calimary]

20. Yup! The absolute worst thing we can do is to stay silent.

That’s what they want. They want us to be bullied into submission. And shut up and not make any trouble for them.

Well, I ain’t playin’.

[hoosierspud]

15. My church group went on a mission trip to Puebla state

In Mexico about a month ago. It was sugar cane harvesting time. There was ash from the burned leaves all over the ground, workers whose clothes and bodies were black from soot, and plumes of black smoke coming up from the processing plants. Some of the guys on staff had worked the fields and told us about it. Pay was about $5 for an 8 hour day. I heard the radio program "Reveal" do a couple programs about human trafficking in the Dominican Republic to supply sugar companies with workers. I wrote an article for my church's newsletter about it and found out that in addition to lung problems from the burning, harvesters also suffered from chronic kidney disease.

[femmedem]

19. Thank you for spreading the story of the conditions you saw.

For many of us--myself included--the suffering that goes into producing the products we consume is out of sight, out of mind.

[JCMach1]

22. Doesn't excuse anything, but I literally saw people of the dalit caste breaking

Stones into rubble for roads as a job... By hand in Nepal.

Did I mention, it was usually women with babies on their back as well...

Not a lot of good options staying home, or working jobs in the Gulf.

I won't even go into detail about the street orphans with dirt glue rings around their mouths.


Poverty f:ing sucks whatever form it takes.