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Article

4 Feb 2015

Author:
Scott Wallace, National Geographic

Nicaragua: Video on epidemic of often deadly kidney disease among sugarcane cutters; mill denies responsibility

“Can sugarcane workers be saved with simple water and shade?”, 29 January 2015

Roughly half the adult male population of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, is suffering from an often deadly kidney disease that appears to be linked to their work as sugarcane cutters. Known as chronic kidney failure, the disease has cast a pall [in]…the San Antonio Sugar Mill. Causes of the disease are still mysterious, but dehydratation, and heat stress, agrochemicals, antibiotics, and genetics are thought to be possible contributing factors...Filmaker Ed Kashi…has been documenting what some have called an epidemic, estimated to have killed 20,000 men in Central America in the past two decades…The sugar mill mostly puts the blame on the workers…