The Government Chief Medical Officer should go live near the dump .

The test results for air quality for the most recent fire at Riverton City is not yet available, but the Chief Medical Officer is contending that the people living in the area surrounding fire are not expected to suffer any long term impact from the current events.

I continue to contend that in Jamaica, even the most well educated amongst us, appears to either become idiots or complete liars once they taking on any type of political appointment.

I would like for the Chief Medical Officer to live in this area not for 5 or 10 years, but just for 6 months and then report to the country, whether or not the quality of  her life given the air quality in the area is ACCEPTABLE for someone of her social standing.

The Government Chief Medical Officer is not acting like the educated persons , we all know she is and her recent speech shows sheer contempt for the people in and around this area who has invested and made some of these areas their permanent home.

Fire at the dump is not a annual event, its a daily event , that is the dump is always on fire albeit not large fire and hence the air quality issue is  always there,  but become worse , when we have large fires as is the current case.

Each time we have these fires the surrounding communities are exposed to air borne particulates, air borne toxins, carcinogenic materials, which contribute what is know as acute illnesses. Acute illness occurs from long term exposure to chemical agents, whether by skin contact, inhalation, ingestion  or any other methods or routes that the chemical agents can take to get into the body.

The effect of these chemicals is based on the following :

1. Concentration of the chemicals one is exposed to
2. Length or duration of exposure
3. One’s physical condition
4. Type of chemical exposure
5. Method of entry
6. etc.

So for a medical officer to suggest without any scientific examination or data, that this particular fire and subsequent exposure should have no long-term effect on residents is beyond comprehension and she should apologize for making such a statement, which is not grounded in science.

The only way the Chief Medical Officer could have arrived at this position, was to have been monitoring the physical and medical conditions of the people in the area for the past few years and conducting test over a period of time in particularly the periods after massive exposures as what happens in the big fires and then compare to previous reading to see what changes have taken place.

One simple test for example is called Spirometry Test, which checks lung function. This simple test conducted over  a period of years could give some indication if there is direct link between the emissions at the dump and respiratory issues.

Other test could be  examination of blood samples for  concentration of certain chemicals which are known to cause acute illness in the future and see if the concentration levels in the same sample of residents are increasing or remaining stable.

That is how one can scientifically arrive at an informed position and  not a “feeling” position as what appears to have been the case with the Government Chief Medical Officer.

I am not a Doctor or a medical profession and may not therefore carry the clout of the goodly Doctor, but I am damned sure I would never had made such a statement without scientific evidence that CANNOT be challenged by anyone.

To say I feel let down once a gain by our professionals a gross understatement !

Can someone in the medical profession call out the Government Chief Medical Officer !