Workshop for Information Exchange and Framework Development for Study of Epidemiological, Hydrological, and Social Factors Contributing to Chronic Kidney Disease (CKDu) in Sri Lank

Colorado School Of Mines, Golden CO

Investigators

Abstract

The workshop will examine the environmental controls on kidney disease in Sri Lanka and posit hypotheses on how these factors interact in the specific hydrologic, geochemical and social environmental settings to produce the current disease crisis. The workshop will take a multidisciplinary team of scientists from the US to Sri Lanka for a week long site field visit to the affected areas in the north central parts of Sri Lanka and gather firsthand information on the epidemic and its environmental context. They will meet with local researchers in universities and other governmental and non-governmental agencies to study and assess the problem. They will conduct two workshops with local experts. The team members will be selected to represent multiple areas of expertise including environmental sciences and engineering, surface and subsurface hydrology, soil science, geochemistry, behavioral sciences and environmental psychology, geographic information systems, medicine and public health,. The primary goal is to provide expertise on the assessment of the factors that contribute to the epidemic. Having assessed the problem from a broad perspective and discussed the various environmental interactions that could lead to the present set of conditions, the various disciplines will then be well posed to posit research project to multiple agencies to address those parts of the problems amenable to each agency. This project is jointly funded by GEO/EAR, ENG/CBET and OD/OISE. This workshop will examine the complex environmental processes of hydrology, engineering and agricultural production of Sri Lanka that appear to contribute to the occurrence of widespread kidney disease. There is the consensus that this is a multi-factorial disease related to chronic exposure to arsenic, cadmium and nephrotoxic pesticides. Additional risk factors such as drinking water contamination in shallow wells and the use of pesticides and contaminated triple phosphate fertilizer have also been identified.