Banana workers found with chemical contamination

Hongta International, a Chinese firm, has leased about 3,000 rai of land in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province to grow Cavendish banana trees. The nine-year lease took effect last November. 

Authorities have assigned the Phaya Meng Rai Hospital to conduct blood tests of 43 of the plantation’s 200 workers.

The action comes after reports of a sizeable number of banana-plantation workers in northern Laos falling sick. It was suspected chemicals used by the Chinese firm were responsible. 

Blood-test results by the Phaya Mengrai Hospital showed 10 of the workers were in the risky condition, while 13 had already reached unsafe contamination levels. 

The hospital has explained that further blood tests must be conducted and these workers’ behaviour must be evaluated in detail. It said such levels of contamination might have arisen from eating unwashed vegetables.

“It’s possible that if consumers don’t wash vegetables thoroughly, they might absorb chemicals too,” Phaya Meng Rai district chief Phubet Julayanont said yesterday. “We have to investigate further to determine the exact cause of the contamination”. 

Tuanchai Walaisuk, the chief of workers at Hongta International, insisted the plantation under his supervision did not use the chemicals the Chinese initially wanted to utilise. 

“We are worried about the impact from those unfamiliar chemicals, because we have heard about what happened in Laos,” he said. 

Tuanchai said banana plantations in Chiang Rai used pesticides that were widely used in Thailand.