Read the full transcript of Lead Man of India Dr. Thuppil Venkatesh’s interview on Body To Beiing Podcast with Shlloka on “C@ncer Causing Items- Toothbrush, Paint, Turmeric”, Premiered November 12, 2025.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Today we’re not just interviewing a guest, we’re interviewing a legend. And from what he’s about to share, I promise you will not only blow your mind, but will move you in ways that you will never forget.
So from the toothpastes to the utensils, to the paint on our walls, to the toys in our children’s hands, to the foods that we eat, poison is slowly entering our lives in ways we don’t realize. And it’s not just a chemical. It is a neurotoxin which is silently damaging your brain, damaging your kidneys, lowering your IQs and is killing you.
Today we are going to be uncovering this hidden villain that is responsible for damaging millions of lives worldwide, yet no one really talks about it. You know, there are very few podcasts that transform me at my most fundamental being, and this is one such podcast. So I truly urge you from the bottom of my heart to share this video, because awareness on this issue can really save life. Namaskaram, Dr. Thuppil.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Namaskaram. How did you get this word, Namaskaram? From Tamil Nadu.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: So I’m associated with the Isha Foundation in some way. I’m a follower of Sadhguru. So you know, my indoctrination as a… And so it’s been such a… It’s an honor and a pleasure. First off, no, no, no, not at all. But it’s a huge honor and a pleasure to be interviewing the lead man of India.
So thank you so much and I’ve been so looking forward for this conversation and I think it’s going to change and transform a lot of mindsets today and I think things that we don’t know of. So I want to begin by asking you, sir, what are some of the hidden villains in our everyday lives? You know, we would be using them from morning to night. We would be using them every day, thinking they are safe, believing they are harmless, but actually they are not.
The Scale of Lead Usage in India
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You are asking a million dollar question to answer this. First, let me look at how much of lead is used in this country annually for various purposes though 80% goes into lead acid battery. These batteries have a life, they get recycled.
How much of lead, which is number one environmental toxin or I don’t know, to call it as a poison, environmental toxin. There’s a difference between toxic and poison. Poison kills immediately. Toxin will not give immediate. I was searching, I was surprised and shocked to find it is anywhere between 1.3 million metric tons of lead.
1.3 million metric tons of lead is required. In our country, we don’t have lead mines, we recycle lead. If we had lead mines, it would have been a different story. We recycle available lead to the last milligram. We recycle. Very little lead is extracted from nature now. Where is it used from morning till evening?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Sir, I had a few questions.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Morning to evening, we’ll go into the details.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Sure, we’ll go to the details now. Okay, you told me first is toothbrush.
Lead in Toothpaste and Toothbrushes
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Toothpaste, toothpaste, even toothbrush. Right? Brush, plastic material that may not harm that much, but paste, right. From our first activity of brushing the teeth, lead, we are getting exposed to lead. Longer we brush the teeth, its effect is more.
Because most of the toothpaste all over the world contains lead. All over the world. I don’t know, there might be few toothpaste which may not have lead. And this is used directly on calcium, that is teeth. The teeth is coated with dentine, is coated with calcium. Lead removes calcium. More and more we brush, more and more we use, the decay. Tooth decay is a common thing.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Enamel.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yes, yes, yes.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Ah, but I have heard, sir, that the highest amount of microplastic exposures is because of the toothbrush. So toothbrush is also bad in a sense.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Right?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: But there might not be lead issues in the toothbrush.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They contain lead because of coloring agent used to give you colorful toothbrush contains lead that may not leach out. Unlike in toothpaste. In toothpaste lead is there. It may be negligible amount.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Even one lead in the toothpaste can remove 1,000 calcium.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Oh my God.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: That is the danger. That’s why we are concerned about that.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: So why do they put lead in the toothpaste?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: See, it is not that they put lead, the whitening agent. Toothpaste is white except some streaks of color. Toothpaste invariably is white. Where does it come from? It comes from some of the calcium salts or that calcium salts come along with lead.
Even for osteoporotic patients when they were giving calcium sandose calcium that contained lead. Because they take seashells to powder it and use it. And seashells wherever they were using fisherman net with leaded balls to sink it. That was contributing to the water. And that water was giving rise to the seashells containing lead.
That means lead we are using knowingly or unknowingly. Whether it is a hair dye, it is eyeliner. Whether it is the lead balls in a fisherman net or whether it is in the toothpaste. Whether it is in the plate where you know, plates are made out of melamine or coated plates, coated tawa and pressure cooker. So many utensils. Very colorful, very good looking.
You know Mithai, what we buy in the shop, there’s silver foil. Silver is 1.2 lakh per kg.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct? Correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: What can you get? Yeah, it’s all plastic. It’s a plastic and some metals including lead.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: That’s olden days. Maharaj probably were using gold sheets. Every day, every activity, without our knowledge, we are getting exposed to lead for toothpaste.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Sir, what solution can you give to the viewers? What can we use if not a regular toothpaste? What is an option to use a leadless toothpaste?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Have we demanded lead free toothpaste? Have we demanded on the toothpaste box they should put the amount of lead, how much it contains. Have we? No, we have not demanded. We don’t get one of the major source of lead. So food is supposed to protect our health. Turmeric powder medicine. You know our kitchen is like a pharmacy.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct. In Ayurveda they say that Ayurveda is.
Lead in Turmeric and Spices
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: A great, great medicine. I tell you, it is a herbal medicinal practices for last 5,000 years. Ayurveda is the safest among all medicines. Turmeric powder is used in sambar powder, rasam powder, chicken masala. That masala. This masala. This turmeric powder.
To make that powder, the turmeric root should be hard. It’s soft. Actually. When you pluck turmeric from the ground, it grows under the ground. It’s soft. You can’t powder it. It become paste. What they do, they put it in huge vessels coated with the tin and boil, boil, boil in boiling water till all the water comes out of the turmeric. And then they sun dry it. It becomes powder. They millet milling, milling. Then they get turmeric powder.
What happened? This container in which they were boiling, the tin is very expensive. They were adulterated with lead. Lead got into turmeric. Turmeric powder got lead. That’s why in Orissa, some of the tribals in the Orissa, I go and buy turmeric from them. They collect turmeric from the forest and they prepare fantastic zero lead.
Bangladesh is the only country which I know has banned lead chromate getting into turmeric powder. Lead chromate has color, weight and protects and increases the shelf life of turmeric powder. That was another source. There are food grade dyes. There are toxic dyes. These are toxic substances. The lead chromate, this is going into intestine, gets absorbed.
The third route is from the cosmetics, hair dye to other cosmetics. Directly absorbed by the skin goes to again kidney. I’ll give you an old man quietly sitting in his room or goes to barber shop and gets his hair dyed. I asked that man, are you dying or dying hair dye?
Every hair dye contains lead. If you don’t use lead in the hair dye, the hair will be like the corn shoes that color. What is the color of corn sheaves? It is a reddish brown color. The moment you add lead, jet black, change the proportion. Different shade, different colors.
If you go to any hospital, dialysis patients who have lost kidney function. They have painted their hair several times because of makeup.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah, you told me 9 out of 10 dialysis patients.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Sometimes they are around 8, 9 out of 10. In some places I have found dyed their hair.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Dialysis patients dyed their head.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They have dyed and then the kidney got damaged and become dialysis patients. It’s not the dialysis patients dying their hair. They have dyed even much before.
The Kidney Crisis
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct? Correct. You know, sir, talking about kidney, I was telling you over the phone also. I lost an aunt from kidney problems. I lost a friend who’s one year younger to me from kidney problems. My cousin sister’s husband’s both kidneys have failed and the person in one person in my team undergoes regular dialysis. He’s some 38, 39 years old. So I am amazed to see the kind of kidney problems that people are having these days. Do you think it is because of lead?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Primarily I’ll tell you one incident which I told you that day when I was talking to you. There was a young girl in a mall called Forum Mall in Koramangala. Very close to St. John’s Medical College hospital where I was working. One day I went to mall to buy some electronic, some part maybe charger or something.
I saw one very pretty girl standing. I looked at her, very attractive girl. I went round and round looking at her from different angles. She was getting embarrassed. Why this old man, this looking at me like that. I was smiling. Finally she could not control. She said, “Uncle, what do you want?”
I said, “You are beautiful.” “Thank you uncle.” She said, “No, no, no dear.” I asked what is your name? She gave me some told me some name. I forgot. I said, “You are why I’m seeing you from different angle. Not you, I’m looking at your hair. From this side it’s purple, that side it’s greenish. From that side it’s different color. You know it has different shades. What did you do?”
I knew what she had done. She said she had applied some hair color, hair dye or something like that. Very expensive one brand also. She told me some L’Oréal or some brand. Then I started talking to her. “Look my dear, I know something about lead. This contains lead. Lead can get absorbed in your skin. May go to different organs like liver, kidney, brain and brain. It may not go because we cannot further develop brain. It is not going to matter. But if it goes to kidney, it will damage the kidney.”
She said, “Thank you uncle for your gyan.” I came back some several months later. I got a call from emergency medicine and they called me. “Sir, there’s an end stage renal failure. ESRD. End stage renal disease.” Like what happened probably to your friend.
I went there. This person, very familiar face lying on the bed. That time she was looking different. Now she is looking different. Suddenly she looked at me. “Uncle, you are the one who told me in that mall not to dye my hair.” I did not know what to answer. “Uncle, can I hold your hand?” I gave my hand. “I don’t want to die, uncle.” Pleading. “I don’t want to die. I want to live.”
I said, “Don’t worry, our people will do whatever best they can. You are on dialysis.” Next day I learned she was no more. How I would have felt. Not only that day I was emotional. Even today I am emotional. How many millions and millions of our daughters and granddaughters are dying though unknowingly damaging themselves.
Makeup materials. Why makeup? If there’s shortage of marks in the school, principal will make up, teachers will make up, shortage of attendance. They will make up. Makeup is whenever there is a shortage. But is there a shortage of beauty to anybody? Everybody is beautiful. Let them stand in front of the mirror. Somebody tell me I’m not beautiful. I’m ugly. Everybody is beautiful.
God created nature, created all of us to look different. If all of them were same looking, it would have been a boring thing, you know. Therefore the makeup materials should not be used.
Lead in Traditional Cosmetics
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Actually in my view, you know, sir, in one study speaking of makeup, I learned that Korma kajal has the highest concentration of lead and Pakistani kajal has the highest. In Pakistani kajal is supposed to be very good. I remember growing up in school we used to all love applying Pakistani kajal. But that has the highest concentration of lead followed by Surma, kumkum, sindoor and henna powders. Even henna is a problem.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Henna is a plant product. It has no lead. Okay. If you use henna.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Your hair will be something like wood color.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: To make your hair little darker, shiny, they add lead acetate in that. It may go up to even 3.5% lead acetate in.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Henna. You have seen some very religious Muslims.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lead in Traditional Products: Mehendi, Surma, and Kajal
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They have their dadi orange. What is the color orange? That is henna. Pure henna. Forget about that. When you have applied that, what do you call that?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Mehendi.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Mehdi. Yeah, Mehdi.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I have seen black. No, no, it should not become black. It should be reddish pinkish. Mehendi should be pinkish, not black. That means no lead. If they add lead that becomes black, that contains lead. We have what is called Surma, that eyeliner. You know, Surma, you must have heard about.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You might have used Surma.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Surma is lead and antimony.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: And it is said that Surma is good for the eyes. Apparently that’s what we’ve been told.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: The seller market man will tell you you look beautiful if you. I tell you, we don’t need these things to project ourselves.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I was in Pakistan. I went to Pakistan in connection with global warming and lead and things like that. Then I interacted with many media people and said this is the problem. It is not Pakistani. This one eyeliner, it’s again Punjabi. Before independence also it was there. But Muslims were using it both for men and boys and girls. This one even today, small Muslim boys, you know.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They look so cute because of this eyeliner they put.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Correct, correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Then I said, I tell you, they took action and they have banned Surma in Pakistan. In many places you don’t get Surma. Maybe at home, if they prepare and use it, they are also like you and me, you know, they want to protect their children.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, okay. But Kajal we prepare at home is fine.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Kajal is from a flower, white colored flower. What they do, the latex of the flower, they heat it, it becomes black soot. That they use it as kajal, there’s no problem. But Kajal, what you get in the market, it may not be safe. If you prepare it at home, anything you prepare it at home, you will not use toxic substances. But whatever you buy, they sell it for money. And what you buy for money may not be safe.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Henna powders. Pure henna powder should be orange and they’re not a problem. Make it at home. Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You grow one henna tree, okay? So many up. Every house has this.
The Dangers of Aluminum Utensils
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Sir, aluminum utensils you spoke about. I want to understand the utensils in a bit of detail. Through research we found out that aluminum can leach up to 100 to 300 micrograms per liter of lead into food.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Aluminum leaches out lead. This is very well established, published, maybe more or less. Why? I tell you, aluminum naturally contains lead in the ore. Aluminum bauxite, that is ore. Galena is the ore for lead. Wherever you find zinc lead, you can find aluminum bauxite also. There is cross contamination always there.
Aluminum vessels which are used by poor people to make for marriage houses. When they make biryani and palav and all that, they use this aluminum vessel. When they heat it, if it’s acidic, it depends upon the pH, the acidity, alkalinity of the water in which they cook. The leaching also varies.
If you keep water in aluminum vessel and put a stethoscope and listen, you get a hissing noise. If you carefully observe there are bubbles coming out. It works like an electrolysis. Lead, aluminum electrolysis.
Now aluminum has changed its costume. It has become Indallium, Hindalium and all that. Even this Hindalium, Indallium is banned in America. What is manufactured in India by big companies are banned. They found a lot of lead in that. It came in all the papers.
Therefore, aluminum in any form contributes to leaching of lead into water or food or whatever it is, is very well established. The pressure cooker pans, other cooking utensils are all containing very high amount of lead because they are all aluminum based, zinc based. Zinc lead is part of zinc. It comes as a byproduct in zinc industry. India led zinc in Rajasthan. They produce lot of zinc. Lead is a byproduct. That’s one of the sources of lead.
Now we don’t have that many lead mines. We don’t have, all are exhausted. We are getting from the zinc mine lead as a byproduct. What is the solution? What is the best?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Is stainless steel okay as alternative or your wooden pots safe? What do you call that?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Mud pot.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Mud pot. Mud pot. Drinking tea in that mud pot is safer than drinking tea in the paper cup which is coated with plastic.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Paper cups are also bad.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Paper cup is okay. But if paper cup is coated with plastic inside, which it is.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Most paper cups have plastic inside.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Plastic or wax I think is bad. Microplastic. Aluminum contributes towards lead toxicity. Then the coated disposables are contributing towards microplastics. Maybe one of the incidents that I like to have worms in my food. It has reached about 2 to 3 million people. I don’t know whether you saw that.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Worms in your food? No.
The Importance of Worms in Food
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Oh, I need safe food. I don’t want contaminated food with lead and other pesticides. Insecticides have very high amount of lead.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: And every food has pesticides, insecticides sprayed on them.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I’ll tell you. Okay. You see, when I was a small boy.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I still remember we used to get vegetables. My mother used to clean, remove all the worms. Some worms were there in the vegetable, correct? She used to remove the worm, bindi or whatever, brinjal, whatever it is. Rest of the vegetables she used to cook. It was safe because worms were alive.
Today there are no worms in any vegetable. You buy vegetable, cut it and put it, cook it and eat it. Because there’s so much of pesticides, insecticides are used. There are no worms. When you eat, when worms are not surviving, do you think I and you will survive?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Beautiful.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yeah. To your child, you should never give that kind of food. Give that kind of food where there is no pest. Organic. That’s what they.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Organic, yeah. Today they use so much of urea, pesticide, insecticide. The soil has no earthworm, correct?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Dig, dig, dig. No earthworm. We need earthworm. We need these worms, insects. They control bio control things and you can remove them, clean them. Rice we used to get with some black mini hippopotamus like thing. And many times after cooking also I used to get old.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: So I used to remove and eat that.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: But it was a habit. It was not used. Today we get rice in a daba.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: One cockroach somehow slips and falls into that and dies. Dies. And we continue to survive. Whether it’s a plastic rice, whether it’s a pesticide, insecticide loaded lead.
See these fruits these days. Earlier days mangoes had a shelf life, shorter shelf life.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Whether dasheri or whichever it is, now they have longer shelf life because they are coated. Apples are coated with wax. Calcium carbide used to ripen the fruits faster, particularly bananas, mangoes.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Mangoes, which has lead.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You know, these are all unethical practices for two reasons. One, knowingly they are doing it, unethical. Unknowingly they are doing it, innocence. They cannot be innocents or ignorant people.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct, correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Because our life is unlike their hides.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Therefore we get exposed to lead. This water you gave me is some mineral water, isn’t it? Label is not there, some of this, because we don’t want to advertise any company.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Sure, there’s no.
Hidden Toxins in Packaged Water
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I know, I know. I understand that. Suppose if this were to be for a particular company, it doesn’t matter. On that they print, you know, carbohydrate zero, protein zero, lipids zero. As if they should have all that. It will become Panaka, Panaka juice. They say they are 000, safe to drink.
But can they say mercury zero, lead zero, cadmium zero? Can they not do that? I’m more concerned about that. If there is some sugar or fat, it is not going to kill me. If there is some lead, cadmium, mercury in this water, can they not put it? This is a requirement.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Lead, cadmium. What are the requirements again, sir, just for the viewers?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: There are seven toxic substances WHO has recommended.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Can you please name the seven toxic materials one more time?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, group of pesticides, insecticides, fungicides.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: So we should be checking the label of everything that we consume or use.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They can say one declaration. “This doesn’t contain the WHO identified toxic substances.” Even if it is there below the acceptable limit. For example, lead below 10 ppm. There are different elements, they are different. Mercury is below 1 ppm.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: And pesticide, insecticide, there are levels. It is below that. Can they not declare that? You know what is happening today? People are going in for organic food.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
Understanding Organic vs. Chemical Food
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: What do we do? We go test the soil where they grow. Test the water, what they use. That’s it. If water and soil are free from pesticide, insecticide, lead, cadmium, mercury, we don’t do any more test. If soil and water contain these toxic substances, definitely that, whatever the butterfruit or whatever they grow, that is not organic.
Organic is, there are three types of food: natural food, organic food, then chemical food, chemical used food, pesticide, insecticide used food.
What is natural food? Go to the forest, pluck some berries, come and use it, natural. Go to the forest, attack a beehive, collect honey, use natural.
What is organic? You have a farm, you have bee boxes, 20, 30 of them. You keep that place clean environment, everything is clean, that becomes organic. If you start spraying insecticide, pesticide, fungicide, bacterial side, then it becomes non-organic or chemical food.
99% of the food we are consuming today is chemical food, contaminated, adulterated. We don’t know why the incidence of cancer has gone up.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Second largest cause of death in the world.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Definitely these are all chemicals, toxic substances. Maybe we are able to detect it and we are able to detect more and more. That’s another reason. But how did it happen? How did it come?
Lead, for example, you know what is 1 kg, you can weigh that, you can hold it. If you divide that into thousand parts, each part is one gram. You can still hold it and feel that one gram. If you divide that one gram into thousand parts, equal parts, each part is one milligram. You cannot feel that one milligram which is on your hand. You cannot see also one milligram. Maybe you will be able to see, but you may not be able to feel there.
You take that one milligram, divide it into thousand equal parts. Each part is microgram, which you cannot see. If you have 2 micrograms of lead in 100 milliliters of blood, it can bring DNA aberration. It can cause cancer. That is the magnitude. What you cannot see, what you cannot feel, if it is there, it can bring about deadly diseases.
The Truth About Herbal Products
SHLLOKA JOSHII: But what about herbal toothpaste, sir? You know, toothpaste would say herbal.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: It’s very difficult to say the herbal is safe.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Unless otherwise I know what is its composition. Why do they call it as herbal? Isn’t it?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: The moment they say Himalayan water, spring water, you are coming from Himalaya spring water. Yeah.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct. These are all marketing gimmicks.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Marketing gimmicks, sir.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Another insight that I found was that lead stays in the blood for about 30 days and in the bones and the brain for about 20 to 30 years.
The Three Routes of Lead Exposure
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: There are three routes for lead to enter our body. What are they? Number one, lead is in the three different forms: metallic form, inorganic form, organic form. No other possibility.
What is this metallic lead? As a lead itself. When we were adding anti-knock agent called tetraethyl lead to petrol to prevent engine cracking. Olden days, 1940s wartime. The engines were all aluminum blocks. Sudden change in temperature is to crack the aluminum. Sudden when they ignite. That time they were adding tetraethyl lead to avoid sudden rise in temperature or heat and to avoid cracking of the engine.
This tetraethyl lead used to come out as lead particles less than 10 microns in diameter along with petrol. It used to get combustion and it used to come out and people who are going on scooter with the baby behind another car which was using petrol or some other vehicle, they were inhaling.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Inhaling is breathing.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: It used to go to lungs. From lungs through the blood, it used to go to various organs, get deposited like in kidney. Of course in the brain also.
What happened? A pregnant lady when she inhaled that exhaust from vehicle or from electronic industry where they use for soldering lead. Soldering fumes. She was inhaling. Where was it going? It was going into her blood when she was pregnant. There was no placental barrier. The lead from her blood used to go to the fetus in the womb.
That fetus, first organ to develop was the brain, isn’t it? And there was no blood-brain barrier. Even before it opened its eyes, even before it was born, it was already lead poisoned. One route is inhalation.
Ingestion: The Second Route
Second route is ingestion. We eat. We eat food. In Lucknow, I tell you, near King George Medical University, I saw it. The fellow was selling milk candy at a very reasonable rate. People loved it. Sweet and nice, bright white. What he was using? They found lead oxide, saccharine. That filter paper or some paper mesh. He used to make a paste of that, mix all this and give. Poor people, children used to enjoy eating that. They were getting lead. This is called ingestion.
Now that is ingestion. Could we consume where they cook it in a lead-containing? Whether lead leaches into that and that we consume, that is it goes into the intestine. Tell me, 100% preventable, you know. 100% preventable in day to day. Our day to day. I am talking about only day to day. Anything else? I am not talking about high-end research or anything. Day to day. Common man’s house.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
Lead in Everyday Life: Batteries and Inverters
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Rich man will have a generator to have 24 hours power supply. Common man will have inverter at home. You have inverter at home? No. When power fails, how do you get power backup? In the complex there is an inverter. Power backup is a battery. It gets charged. When power fails, it at least makes some lights on and sometimes—
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Generator. Yeah. Community generator. Colony generator.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Generator, yeah, yeah. You have a community.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Community.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Correct. I have inverter at home. Many, many of them have this battery stored energy. They are using this inverter has terminals. You don’t have battery at home for as a backup for computer? Might be there.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: The terminals, both the terminals, negative and positive, cathode, anode. It forms powder there. And your maid will come and sweep with broom and then powder spread all around. Child will be on the ground touching. This is another source of lead. That lead sulfate is another source of lead.
And of course we have these batteries have a life, three years, four years. Then you give it to kabadiwala, he will come and take. And where will it go? We are supposed to return it to the place where we purchased battery. He will give you 300 rupees. This kabadiwala gives you 400 rupees. Then everybody goes to kabadiwala because he doesn’t pay any GST, no tax, nothing. Whereas the fellow who buys it from you is accountable. He has to produce receipt and he has to produce GST.
Without thinking, just for few hundred rupees, we give it to somebody. We don’t know how he is handling. He will become back to your smelter. There are two types of lead recyclers. But old battery, they remove lead, recycle, use it in new battery. 80% of the lead is used in the battery industry, another 15% in paint industry, and other industries also.
A Tragic Case: The Battery Worker’s Baby
One day I was sitting in my department around this time, 11:30, 12 or 12:30. One young couple, they were walking in. Then I asked my secretary, “What do they want? Who are they?”
“Sir, they have come to see you.”
I said, “Call them inside.” And I knew he knows Hindi. He gave me one slip which was given to him in the OPD. The doctor who examined the baby—baby was getting convulsions after convulsions. Mirgi, you know in Hindi we say mirgi. Convulsion.
Then from the time child was born, it must have had 10, 20 convulsions in two months, two and a half months time. The doctor in turn asked, “What are you doing? What is the job?”
He said, “Private.”
The doctor did not keep it private. He said, “I am breaking the battery, taking out the lead, making pipes for the toilets because it’s non-corrosive.”
Suddenly the student intern sent him to me. Maybe lead toxicity causing this convulsion in the baby. He came with a baby. I asked him where he is working. And he said he was working for some company. And then he was doing private practice. He was doing very well. And he was getting more batteries to break and make pipe which he had become master, the technique. He was skilled worker. Started earning good money.
He went back to Bihar, got married and came back. Young lady came with him. She became pregnant. One corner of the room he used to break battery, make pipes. Other corner, she used to make dal, roti, chapati. You know, things like fumes here, chapati smell there, battery fumes. She was pregnant. She was inhaling. All the lead went into the brain of the baby, in the fetus in the womb. There’s no—I told you—placental barrier. There’s no blood-brain barrier.
Child was born with impact of lead on the brain. Convulsion. Then we had to do blood lead level of the baby. Two months baby. Baby looked at me and smiled at me. I took the baby. You know, such a cute baby, I tell you. Technician came, prick on the heel. Babies, you know, he do the heel prick and in capillary we take the blood. Baby did not cry, looking at me as if I’m going to give everything to the baby on the earth.
And then this man asked, “Kit?” I said he wouldn’t sit. His wife wouldn’t sit. They have no footwear. Poor people. They came walking some long distance. He’s asking, “How much paisa?” Now he’s searching here. I said, “No, no need to pay any money. Wait.” Still he was searching. He is asking how much it is. He was very uncomfortable. He wanted to pay. We did not collect money.
After some time, before the report came, the child got very powerful convulsion and became still. People came, examined and said, “Sorry, sir.” When a nurse or a doctor says sorry, it means over. Everything is over. They tried to locate the pulse in the carotid. Nothing. Dead. Baby was dead.
It was difficult for me to hand over the baby to him, nor keep it on the table. Dead baby. The baby which was looking at me. I don’t know what hope it had. No more. The baby was no more.
Report came. He doesn’t know the baby is dead. He is asking report. I said, “No more problem to your child. The child is not alive.” I told him. He could not understand. I explained, “If child were to be alive lifelong, it would have suffered.” Then he realized. I don’t know. He told something to his wife. She almost collapsed, fell down, went to the ground. Child was no more.
I went home to have lunch. My wife had come from bank. She was working in a bank. I was mixing rice with the same hand in which I was holding the baby. Mixing rice with some dal. Mixing, not eating, not able to eat.
She asked, “What happened? Are you all right?”
I said, “I am fine. This is what happened. I lost one female child.”
She said, “It’s over. How long you will remain like that? Eat.”
My hand is fresh with the baby’s skin holding. She asked me, “Are you born to your parents out of choice or by chance?” I asked this question to every viewer or a warrant to your parents out of choice or by chance?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Chance.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Everybody says, I’m sure, chance. Some children are born out of choice also. The female fetus side is there. They want to get a baby boy. That child which died could have been sitting here interviewing me. How many millions of children? I’m not looking at only that child.
Cultural Practices and Lead Exposure
I went to Silchar, Assam to do some survey about 20 years ago. Silchar is on the other side of Bangladesh. I went all the way around Silchar. There was an airport, but still I wanted to go by road, by Meghalaya and all that. When I went there, I was surprised to see some beads were sold in the shops in a gunny bag. Beads.
Then he said, “It’s a lead bead.”
I said, “Why do you sell this?”
“When the baby female child is one year, rich man will put a golden bead around the neck. The poor people put lead bead.” That lead bead, that child will sweet. You know, lead is sweet. Start chewing.
There are many practices like this in my own state. In the coastal area, South Kanara, during Dashara festival, they paint their body like a tiger and they dance to get some money. The paints they use is loaded with lead, gets absorbed.
Forget about that. Just two weeks ago, how many millions of tons of fireworks we used in this country? And white sparkler, you know, white sparkler is lead.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Green is chromium, red is cadmium, white. White sparkler.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: That flowers like it comes.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: That is lead.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Lead, aluminum.
Global Impact: WHO Statistics
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Absolutely. Because I came across the statistics by WHO, sir, that in 2021, 1.5 million deaths were due to lead.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I’ll tell you. I was in WHO as a member of the Guideline Development Group for the Identification, Detection and Treatment of Lead Poisoned Children and Women. We were more concerned about women and children. Women at reproductive age and children because they are very vulnerable.
Somebody asked me, “Sir, you have done so much. You got unleaded petrol with a team of workers in the George Foundation.”
I said, “I did not get. It is George Foundation which got. They made me Lead Man because you are gold, you are diamond, you are—somebody has to be the cheapest metal. I am the cheapest metal.”
What happened? In 1995 I met one Abraham George, Indian who was asked to retire early from Indian army because of hearing problems. He could not hear because that blast, blast, blast. He was probably was exposed. He came to a evening dinner with Admiral Dawson, myself, Abraham Joy. We met. You know this ICCR, Indian?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
The Fight Against Lead in Paint
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Council of Cultural Research. They had organized dinner. Then Admiral Dawson introduced me as the professor head of the biochemistry department at St. John’s. He asked me, “Oh, you are a biochemistry man. Do you know anything about average blood lead level of Bangalore population?”
I said, “No, no, no. I know about lead that we teach in the first year or second year. We don’t worry about what is the average blood lead level of Indian population.” I said, “Why? Why do you want to know?”
Then he told me he wanted to. His blood lead level was high. He became deaf. And he said, “Lead causes defect in every organ in the body. Some become impotent, sterile. Some become hyperactive.” Then he said, “Why don’t you do one study? Can you take up a study on measuring blood lead level of Indian population?”
I immediately said, “I can, but I need support. I don’t have anything. I don’t have an instrument also. I need support.” He said, “You will mobilize instruments from Indian friends in America.” He mobilized. We started Project Lead Free PLF of the Georgia Foundation TGF. The Georgia Foundation supported Project Lead Free.
We screened more than 23,000 people for next four, five years. And we had the data. Shocking data. We had not announced till the 11th of November. What was that data which we had not announced to any media or anybody. It was very difficult for me to keep it secret.
53.5% of children below 12 years in India in seven metros had their blood lead level very high. Including Delhi, very high. Here we took All University of Medical Sciences as our center. Calcutta, we took Child Health Center. In Mumbai, we took Sayan Hospital like that. We have seven metros where we measured. All the metros said plus or minus. This data had unacceptable level of lead in blood more than 10 microgram per deciliter.
Now it’s around 3 microgram. Those days, 10 was safe. We believed 10 was safe. As a result, as the blood lead level goes up, IQ comes down. That’s the time I said, “If Einstein were to be born in India, he would not have got Nobel Prize.” I did not get Nobel Prize maybe because of my lead. Jokingly I said.
I had only one slide to present. Three minutes was given to me. In that three minutes, with one slide, I said, “This is the situation. 51.3% of children in all the metros have their blood lead level above 10 microgram. As a result, their IQ is reduced by 6 to 8 units. And this situation continues till 2020. By the time the annual economic damage in this country will be 600,000 crores.”
SHLLOKA JOSHII: My God.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: IQ comes down.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yep.
The Battle for Unleaded Petrol
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Human productivity comes down. If you do four hours work, they take six hours, eight hours. I contacted one economist. Economist gave this data. That’s all. Petroleum ministry was there. 37 country representatives were there. But all of them said, “You scientists bring problem to us. We want solution.”
I said, “I have solution. Don’t add tetraethylate to petroleum.” They said, “We have purchased already some 500,000 tons. What to do? World Bank money. We are accountable. We cannot bury it in the deserts of Rajasthan.” What to do with these fools? I’m sorry to use that word. What to do when we cannot convince them.
Then we went to World Bank, met vice chair. Said, “Why do you have dual policy? You don’t give World Bank money to buy tetra. It has led to UK or US. Why Australia? Why are you giving it to developing countries?” He said, “Why? What is the problem?” I said, “This is what is happening. The child died. That died. This died.”
Then he said, “Type the letter.” We typed the letter. If developing countries do not introduce unleaded petrol by 2003, three years time was given. No more World Bank loan.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Oh, okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: This letter we brought to all the developing countries. Not only to India. It went to our parliament secretary. And within three months in March 2000, all the petrol banks all over the country had unleaded petrol. Unleaded, not three years. They did not want to wait. If the World Bank money doesn’t come.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct. Shock, shock.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: This is how we need to play politics.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: So you were the reason that unleaded. Of course. But you were a key player.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Not one individual. I was the director of the project.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct. So you were the key. You were instrumental in bringing unleaded petrol to India.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Claim that all credits should go to any one person. If we are going to have lead safe society, you are also one of the reasons. How can I say I did it? I am here for another five, ten years and go. This concern should build. Every individual is important.
Why India Faced This Crisis
SHLLOKA JOSHII: But tell me something. Why is this problem such a major thing in India and not abroad in India?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Do you think this was a major problem in India? Food was the major problem. Population is a major problem, isn’t it? Unemployment is important. Housing is a major problem. We did not have good roads till our highway ministry came. Kadikari came and we have good roads, good tunnels, 20,000 feet good road. My son went on a bike, on a car to 20,000 feet in Himachal. No road is made now.
These were the priorities. Nutrition was a priority. Good food, midday meal was a priority. Who bothered about this? Tell me. Everybody says nothing happened to my child. Why should I worry? My first child is very interested. The second child is very dull. Or God has given this. This is everything. We attribute it to God.
One person told me, “My eldest is brilliant. This fellow young was born about 10 years ago. He is useless. He is very criminal attitude. He is hyperactive, destructive.” Did not know his blood lead level was high. His IQ was low. Cognitive functions were disturbed, isn’t it?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
The Hidden Danger in Paint
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Ten years later we got unleaded petrol in 2000. March 2010, we were worried about paints.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Paints.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Paint. Did you paint your child’s bedroom with some color paint? Every child’s bedroom is painted with giraffe, this color, various color.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Even my bedroom is painted with blue. My bedroom is also painted.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I was a child then. I was at Quality Council of India as the principal adviser, Government of India in Delhi, only Institute of Engineers building. We were worried about lead in paint. How to? Then I said we should contact paint manufacturer. Before that I got what I did. Collected paint from all the company. Kept all of them. Took the photograph and wrote how much lead is there in each paint.
Published on the Hindustan Times on cover page, cover page of all the paint companies starting from Berger etc. And paint, paint lead content. They were all shocked. All branded seven, eight companies. There are 700, 800 unbranded companies. They make paint in their shed and supply to these people only.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: So what is the problem with lead in the paint for the viewers? Sir, please help us understand.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Leaches out. It comes out. We inhale the powder. Some flakes come out and over a period of time and powders and we inhale that. America had big problem of painting their houses. Wooden houses. They had to paint and lead poisoning was mainly because of the paint.
In 1970s they banned and olden days houses were not. Nobody would go and stay there. If some child suffered, they had to pay compensation. They had to pay huge compensation. Many houses are empty in the Ohio, in Cincinnati. Nobody lives in that house. It’s like ghost house. Because of the paint. The amount of paint they have used. Layers, layers, layers of white paint on the window panel, window.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Even white paint is a problem. All paints are a problem. All colors, white, cream.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: See any paint. Any paint. I have data. The supposed to be green. Green paint has the highest level of, very high level of lead. Worst is yellow. School buses are painted yellow.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Taxis, playgrounds are painted yellow. The playgrounds where children hold, that is yellow. Yellow has the highest.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah. Oh.
Lead in Everyday Items
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: What about colors? Starting from a simple pencil. What child uses is painted. Lead is not there in the pencil. It’s a carbon and graphite. When the child goes to the school nicely dressed, will chew one end of the pencil which is painted. That paint contains lead.
Why should we paint the pencils? My question is, is there anybody in our country including me. Have you made any efforts to convince the government? Why are we giving painted pencil to kill our own children? The IQ is reduced. It can be done overnight. If our prime minister decides that no longer pencils will be painted by Hindustan pencils, Natraj pencils, Apsara pencils, give wooden finished pencil.
Why not we do that? Why not? Government, at least in their offices, in their hospitals, in their schools distribute only unpainted pencil. I am telling you day to day. You asked me where are we at? This is another source. Crayons, color, very colorful. We don’t know what it is. How much lead is there. Has anybody studied, published, educated? Convince the industry?
All of us, we do lot of research. Where will that data go? Have you convinced the industry? What you are doing is wrong? This question I am asking myself. Introspection is very much required.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: All crayons have lead, sir.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Most of the crayons what we have tested has toxic substances including lead.
Confronting the Paint Industry
Anyway, then how to convince this paint industry? I called for a meeting of secretaries, chairpersons and CEOs of the paint industry. I said you should come and attend. We need your help. We want to help you from the government. They all came. When they said we want to help you, they came. Means nobody will come. Lelo, lelo means everybody will come. Yeah.
A fellow, one Gupta fell down into the well. There was no water. Somebody, he was screaming, “Help me. Help me.” Another fellow came. He said “Haado” so that he could pull him out. He never gave. Another Gupta came. He said, “No, no, no. Don’t say hot dedo, hot lelo. Then he will come. He will hold your hand when you say lelo. They will take.” They do. Nobody will correct these industries. When he said we are going to help you, they are okay.
Government had sanctioned money for six meetings. I had to come from Delhi. And then secretaries from various departments came. We had to arrange snacks. That this six meetings means they have huge money. I tell you their travel, up and down travel, tada and all that. I said nothing doing. I’m not going to give one cup of tea. I’ll give and let them come. They all came.
First day I said agenda is very simple. We want you to provide paints below 90 ppm lead. One of them asked me, “90 ppm, how much we have in our paint?” He’s asking his chemical engineer. He said, “We have thousand sir. Because Bureau of Indian Standard has prescribed thousand. We have maintained thousand.” And another fellow said, “No, no. We have up to 40,000 parts per million.” Yellow paint, shining, glittering.
I said, “We want below 90 ppm.” “We don’t have technology.” I said, “Don’t say that. 91% of paint you are manufacturing is for our consumption which has 1,000 to 40,000 ppm remaining. 9% what you are manufacturing, you are exporting to Singapore. They will not accept you unless it is below 90. Why do you bluff? You know you are producing safe paint to other country, not to us.”
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Why? Why? Why?
The Economics of Lead Paint
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They’re not giving up the other paint. Below 90 ppm, every 2, 3 years you have to repaint. It doesn’t last long. Whereas the one which has lead, five years, four years. Oh nothing will happen. They show a lot of advertisement. For years together, it will remain fresh.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah. Why are they sending the paint without lead to other countries?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They will not accept otherwise.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: But you told me that if the lead is not there then the paint will not stick for a long time.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: But there will be paint. But now they have used other like titanium based paint and things like that. That lasts longer. But it’s more expensive. Little more expensive.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I said something I’m not supposed to tell you. I told them our government has decided to import paint without lead, without duty, without custom will be made available at cheaper price. And I don’t want your industries to be shut down. I like your industry. You think it over and come back.
Next day they came. They said, “We will prepare paint.” Gazette notification was made. But they made a small change. They said only decorative and domestic purpose below 90 ppm. When you go to the paint shop, is it mentioned on that? 90 ppm. This is how our people. Though they have. I don’t know why these things are happening.
Cheaper leaded paint is cheaper. They can make more money. Still we have lead safe paint for submarines. You have to use lead based paint only for submarines. Otherwise salt water will erode it.
Lead in Everyday Items: Paints, Water Filters, and Traditional Medicine
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: This is the situation in our country playground. They have not used. It is not decorative nor domestic. See, they use that but children.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct. Correct. Correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Hospitals, schools, should they? In fact, we have mercury free hospital.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: No thermometer with mercury. No blood pressure apparatus with mercury. All digital. Why not? We have lead free and lead safe paint in the hospital. Pediatrics department at least.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes. Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Railway coaches. So such a thick painting there. Anyway those coaches are going now. Modern coaches are coming. Anyway, we are moving towards a very positive side.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: But are there any paints in India? Sir, brands of paints, for example, which do not have lead and which the viewers can choose.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yeah. Asian paints are.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Asian paints are safe.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Domestic and decorative. Okay.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: That’s safe.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Okay. There are many paintings. Not only Asian. We have Nerolac.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I would like to recommend Nerolac because they are more, you know, varieties of paint. They add to give different color shades. You know, some that is where lead might get into this. The final after they paint, they should take an XRF and measure the lead content in the paint.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: That is what is required.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Okay.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Or do not paint the house. That’s the best.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Earlier days my grandfather used to put, you know, here, no money, no paint, you know.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: That used to absorb all the carbon dioxide, bad breath and all that. It used to absorb this paint. He emits it doesn’t. That is a problem.
The Problem with RO Water Filters
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Sir, you had spoken about RO filters. And why is RO filters a problem? Because we think RO filters are great these days. You have these.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I tell you.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Water is a God. We have to take care of that. If we ill treat, 9 out of 10 diseases is from water only.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Because water also has memory.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: People say water has memory. Water has structure. Water. If you chant good mantra, crystals are different. If you fight and quarrel, that water is different. They are established. Definitely. The way is if that water is not treated properly, 8, 9 diseases out of 10 is from water only.
Then we came to cleansing water. We were drinking tap water. We were drinking flowing water. River water. I still remember. But today am I can I dare to drink that flowing water anywhere? Yamuna water. Can I. It’s flowing. Can I drink near Taj Mahal?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: No.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Then we need purification. For millions and millions of years, quality of water has changed. But not the quantity. The total quantity of water has not changed by even one drop. Either it is in the form of ice, clouds or water. It has not changed. We have not synthesized water. Maybe because of lightning. Hydrogen, oxygen must have become H2O. Small amount of water has been created. Small amount of water is also split into oxygen, hydrogen in the electrolysis. But total amount of water has not changed for millions of years. Millions of years.
What has changed? Quality of water. It has become dirty. I cannot drink like Singapore Prime Minister. What he did? He took even toilet water, public sewage water. He subjected to engineering technology, got it purified. He drank first before showing it to everybody. Everybody started drinking now.
One of the easiest technique what we were following was three pot method. On top we had gravel. Big size, small size, small size. Below that, charcoal and bottommost clean water. Three pot method. We were using it in villages. We were using it. It failed. Because the pollution has contamination has become so big. Lead was not there in the water.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Lead was not there on the surface water anywhere in the world. No lake, no river had lead. Lead was a deep hidden giant. We woke him up, we brought him up. During industrialization. Then it got contaminated in the air. When it rained air, lead came into the water.
Now how do we clean this water? Dirty water. How do we clean and get in? One of the technique which was developed, people thought by boiling we can clean. But boiling you concentrate more of lead. Take one liter of water. It has one gram of lead. Let us say 100 milligram of lead. You boil it, it becomes 750 milliliters. Will lead evaporate? No, it will be its concentration increase.
And people then started thinking about why not we remove through membrane. Semi permeable membrane, like our kidney. When blood goes through the kidney, some of the salts are removed. Some of the salts are retained is called osmosis. Semipermeable membrane. Now, nature also had a method of evaporating, raining, cleaning. But the contamination becomes so much.
Then they went into osmosis. What you are referring to? You know, osmosis. Now in osmosis, many things are removed. Big, big molecules, small molecules are not removed. Lead will still be there. Therefore RO. Reverse osmosis. RO is reverse osmosis. In that reverse osmosis, some of the bad things are removed. What is not required. But many bad things are still there. That is about osmosis.
In the Osmosis. Poor quality osmosis. It removes everything. Calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, everything it removes. Then I am getting something like distilled water when I drink this. When you continue to drink this, then it is deprived of minerals. What it does, it takes minerals from the body. Where does it take from bone? Bone calcium gets into this. Magnesium gets into this. As a result, even before menopause, women drinking too much of this kind of water will develop osteoporosis. Because water needs, you know, it extracts.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Aha.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Understand?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: This is the reverse. Osmosis has caused more problem. But I am free from all the infectious diseases. What about systemic diseases? What about. Correct.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct. Correct. Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Then they modified.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Afterwards osmosis, they put a sensor to measure the salt content. If it is low, there’s intelligence. It added salt to that recharging. Today we have an osmosis with an intelligence put into that, which adds salt. That’s why you see added salt, sodium, potassium, calcium. But they don’t mention whether there is lead or calcium. I want that to happen, you understand?
Excellent. We have an excellent technology to remove all the minerals and add what is required. It’s called spiking or what do you call supplementing? They supplement it with salt. Now you have salt which is also called alkaline salt. You know that? No, sodium chloride is an ordinary salt. Your grandparents used sodium chloride from the sea crystals.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You might have seen.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct, Correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yeah. But now we don’t use that. Look at this. Sodium chloride powder, which is alkaline buffer for a nasal cleaning. You know, for neti.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: For neti, you don’t use only water, you add salt.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Hypothonic. It’s about 200 milliliters of water. We dissolve this. Yes, yes, dissolve this in a. Earlier we used to have native part. Now this is the native part. I mix it with water. That water.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: And I do that. This is the. Now osmosis is an excellent, excellent tool technique to get rid of unwanted stuff and still retain what is required by supplementing it. If supplementation is not there amongst bottled water, some of them are 100 rupees per bottle.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Some of them are 700 rupees per bottle. Alkaline water is 700 rupees.
The Mauritius Tuna Fish Discovery
I’ll tell you one incidence. It was an accidental discovery. You know, there are two beautiful countries. One is Mauritius, another Seychelles. Mauritius. The main profession for those people is fishing, culturing tuna fish, exporting tuna fish. I used to go as an examiner to a medical college in Mauritius twice a year and one cab fellow used to come and pick me from the airport. Very, very nice guy. He was inviting me. Sir, I have been inviting you. He never came home. When they had put me in some five star hotel, I used to stay there once.
What happened? I got a call from Mauritius that they identified me as one of the committee members to solve one problem. The problem was European Union. European country. They rejected seven shiploads of tuna fish. They wanted to find out why they rejected. I am not a marine engineer. I was wondering why they have invited me. I went there anyway. Maybe in the committee somebody will contribute. I can give my opinion.
When I landed at the airport, this man, same fellow came. I had my other colleagues. The government of Mauritius invited me. They had arranged a very good accommodation in some research. This man says, sir, at least this time you come. I told my colleagues, you go and stay in the. I will stay with him for one day. Tomorrow I will come and join you. I went to his house. Small house, hut like fisherman driving taxi. Rest all the time. And he made a vegetarian food for me. Enjoyed the food. And he arranged for me a very comfortable place to sleep.
In the night. There was some sound coming from his kitchen. I thought he was preparing for tomorrow’s breakfast. I was curious. I got up and went. He was breaking the battery. Lead acid battery. Taking out the lead, making balls. Lead balls. I asked him what are you doing? They speak Bhojpuri most of them. What are you doing? He said, sir, I’m making this lead balls to my fisherman net. Net goes down in the night and morning. When I pull out, I get tuna fish.
This then my problem was solved. Why the tuna fish was rejected from European countries. Maybe because of lead. Next day meeting I went. I said the problem is solved. I said, get the tuna fish with the rejected. Send it for lead analysis. They got it analyzed. High level of lead was there in the tuna. See how one simple curiosity has solved the problem. And then they stopped using the lead balls. They started using the stone balls. The lead diffuses into the water where tuna fish is cultured.
And I’ll tell you. Lead in water it has certain benefits. Like Chyawanprash.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: It’s Ayurvedic preparation. Only herbal products are used. What happened once in Kottakkal when Chyawanprash was made one of the Ayurvedic thing. The shelf life was very short. People idea is to make Chyawanprash give it. He said after one week you come, I’ll give you fresh one because it will become stale. It’s like.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: To increase shelf life. What happened? One incidence happened in one particular batch of Chyawanprash. After one year it did not get spoiled. They kept it sample. They are wondering why it happened. Then they went into investigation. What they did. They found that that huge vessel was sent for Kalai. Kalai is. You know what is that coating? Tin plating. Tin plating. That fellow who did tin plating adulterated that tin with lead. That lead came into the.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: That Chyawanprash because of lead did not allow any bacteria to grow. Oh. Any fungus to grow. Any Nothing grew. And people who consumed also did not grow. Finally they also died because of late activity.
Ayurvedic Medicine and Heavy Metals
Why? What I am trying to tell you. We have certain benefits. Like Ayurvedic medicine. It has basmas and rasayanas. It came much later. Ayurveda was only herbal medicinal practice. Even that herb and roots and bark and fruits they used to go and pick up only on a particular day. Maybe full moon day, new moon day. They had because it had potency. Because plants are also, you know, they accumulate on new moon day, full moon day. There were certain properties which are enhanced. They used to collect it and make it bring it later on.
What happened in South India, especially Tamil Nadu. Agastya who went there?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah. Agastya Muni.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Agastya Muni.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: What I read I may be wrong also. Please pardon me. He developed waters called basmas and rasayanas. Basmas are all minerals.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Ah, that’s Siddha medicine came from Siddha. Siddhartha.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Minerals.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Under strict restriction they were using it.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah. Mercury.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They developed what is called Shodhana. Mercury.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Shodhana. Shodhana is itself is a big process. I had published a paper also with one of the Ayurvedic physicians. Because what happened in US. Some of the Ayurvedic medicines sold on Internet were found having very high amount of lead, cadmium, mercury in arsenic.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
The Hidden Dangers in Everyday Products
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Robert Sapper and myself, we published. We got a bad name because we exposed our Indian medicine and we were blamed. I said no, no. Some truth we brought out. Not with an intent to punish anybody but to rectify if there is a problem. Why don’t you rectify? We don’t get. We are not here to make money from this. We are here to make health better to everybody.
Of course, later on government of India said gold and seal, platinum seal for medicines for export. I hope the same thing happens to our internal consumption also.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct, correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: We are also humans. Of course, most of the animals today, farm animals, they are not given allopathic medicine. They are given ayurvedic medicine.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay, okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Once they started giving this allopathic, they started giving steroids, some of the antibiotics. Dangerous, isn’t it? Most of the farm animals, poultry animals are protected even before they fall sick. Prophylactic.
There was a study done in that study about 150 people who underwent very serious surgery. Renal transplant, kidney transplant, heart surgery in high end hospital where there’s a zero infection. There was a follow up after they got discharged. Some of them got surgical site infection. And they were wondering why it happened. They used to come back, no antibiotic used to work on them.
Then we went into the details. How many are vegetarian, how many are. Most of them are non vegetarian. Non vegetarians undergoing high end surgery developed post surgical called nosocomial infection. Reason is at least two days a week they were eating poultry animals which were loaded with antibiotics.
Then we went to antibiotics. How much is manufactured, how much is used? What happens to date expired? Date expired were going there to this farm houses, private farms, government farm will not accept it like that. We have unorganized sector causing more problem because there is no checks and balances. No regulation. Whether it’s a lead, cadmium, mercury, pesticide, insect, whatever it is.
That is where we need some strict regulation registry. You know regulation and control has to be there for that, especially for the seven toxic metals and pesticides.
Project 797: A Vision for Toxic Substance Monitoring
I had proposed Project 797 to the government. What is that Project 797 magic number? There are 797 districts in our country. Every district has a hospital, government hospital in that one corner. I wanted to keep aside for bio monitoring of toxic substances in that district. How much toxic material comes, how much is used, where it’s used, how much is discarded.
If we get that data, we get a picture of these toxic substances in that district and we can measure the toxic substances or effects on the population living in and around with EI. I don’t have to take your blood to measure your blood lead level. Using today anodic stripping voltmetry or ICPMS. Very expensive one ICPMS. Cost several crores. I don’t have that much of money or I can’t measure your blood lead level because it costs about 800 to 1,000 rupees.
There are no centers all over the country. There are only 60 centers for measuring blood lead level which we established. Then how do common man from Noida or some other place where can they go and get their blood lead level of their child?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: For that what we have done now, the King George Medical University era Medical Center Lucknow and Ulster University in London together have come out with what is called EI based measuring blood lead level. You are living in one apartment. You are living in one area. How is the air quality? How is the water quality? How is the food quality? If we can collect all the data, it will be your quality. Without checking your blood, looking at few parameters and looking at your habits, we can tell your blood lead level is below 10, above 10.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: And what is the level that is dangerous and what is the level that is considered to be safe?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Above 3 microgram per deciliter is considered to be toxic.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: For most of the Indians, how much lead blood lead levels do you think?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: About 10 microgram per deciliter. Maybe up to 30 microgram per deciliter, particularly people living in and around the industry. People working in the industry. The husband is working in one battery industry, morning till evening. And he during his stay he may use mask but his body doesn’t use mask.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Lead accumulates into the skin.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: He will go and fondly with his child.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: And skin absorbs 60% of the content, right? Skin absorption.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: This is the problem. Now there are problems because it needs engineering intervention. Needs lot of investment. Industry should be willing to invest. Not just making money is a big business.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Whatever you suggest where it hurts their economics comes in. They will not accept.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah, they will not accept.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You will become their enemy.
Lead in Everyday Items: Clothes, Buttons, and Jewelry
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes. What about clothes, sir?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Okay. I’m wearing a button. This button, more shining, has more lead in that.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Ah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Like porcelain cups. More decorative. More color. More lead in that.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Now it is not affecting you and me. It’s affecting the manufacturer. Swarovski crystals in Innsbruck in Austria. That is the world famous. You know Swarovski crystals in the airports you will find loaded with lead. Then crystal glass in which they drink beer or whiskey, and that has lot of lead. That’s why weight heavy. It’s very heavy.
Now they may not leach out but the manufacturer, hundreds, thousands of people who are making it, they suffer from that. Chocolates contains lead because chocolate paper contributes to the chocolate. Whether it’s Lindt or whatever it is.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Artificial jewellery.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes. I heard that jewellery has lead.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: No. I tell you. In Maharashtra there’s a very famous place called Nashik. About 20 km away from Nashik there’s a village. The average lifespan of the villager is 40, 45 years. They die after that. They were saying unknown disease. Unknown disease.
Then I also happened to go there before entering that village. All around, all around, heaps and heaps of black soil. Black. I was wondering from where did they get black soil. Such a manure. Very good soil. When I went there, all of them had same profession. What profession? Purifying the raw silver which was coming from Gujarat and Bombay.
People used to bring raw silver, silver bar, silver rods. Silver. These people were given that by weight. They were given lead also by weight. These people had to melt it, add lead, churn it. The silver was adulterated with sulphur. Natural, natural silver comes with sulphur. If that is not removed, your silver cup, silver vessel turn grayish blackish again. You have to polish. But if you remove that sulphur, the silver will remain like silver, only shining.
These people were boiling melting silver which had sulphur. When they added lead, lead combined with sulphur forming lead sulphide which was black in color. They used to scoop it, put it outside, then silver spew. These people used to come and collect that by calculating the difference and paying them wages. And this was the job. They were getting exposed to light.
Where were the silver used? Now silver is used for many temples and utensils at home functions and ceremonies. But most of them they were using it for artificial jewelry. In Maharashtra only near a place called, I tell you what is that? Mahalakshmi Kolhapur. Kolhapur. Went there. They were making a lot of artificial jewelry.
In fact my wife, my daughter in law’s first cousin is making artificial jewelry here. Very famous in Delhi. They use even in the goldsmith and silver shops. Goldsmith to join the end of the gold, they uses lead. Lead is used in whether is a artificial jewelry, national jewelry, you know, real jewelry also lead is used. They put it, melt it. You will not make out.
Now recently you know, people started buying gold. What is that festival we had? The Dhanteras. That is the time they mix gold with lead, silver with lead and make money.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You can get it checked. But we are blind, you know.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: We have to see. Nobody will simply donate anything to you.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct, correct, correct. And real jewelry we wear every day.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: And my sister used to wear bindi. Yeah, bindi. And she developed some skin problems after that because of some of the unwanted chemicals which were there. Maybe, I don’t know, lead, mercury or whatever it is. I don’t know. There was, she was almost getting a hole on the forehead. Then after some time I said, you don’t have to do anything. That itself is a mark.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct, correct. Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yeah.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah. Okay.
Lead in Food Packaging and Traditional Medicines
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: One another thing I must tell you which is still in practice where everybody is a partner in this crime. When you go to Chowpati or some place where evening we take children you buy bel puri, pani puri and all. They use newspaper and put it on that and give it to you.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Isn’t it samosa also?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Samosa also? Yeah. The newspaper ink contains lead that leaches into this.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: My God. So lead has entered every facet.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I and you are not known to the world. We have not gone anywhere. But lead has gone anywhere. See, Chinese medicines. More than 200 Chinese medicines sold as herbal medicines. Whether it is a tiger balm or whether it is a Bobo Sen contains lead. Tibetan medicines contain lead.
Indian medicines, I don’t want to call it as Ayurveda. Ayurveda, they say some of the Indian jadi booti, some traditional medicines contain lead. African medicine, Middle East, Arab henna comes from there.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Contains lead. Mexican medicine contains lead. Lead is there all over the world. I have the list of medicines which contains how much lead.
Who should educate? I tell you. People who are highly respected in our society. People look forward to meet them. Like our Jagadguru Jaggi. If they make one statement it will be 1 million times stronger than same statement I make. They will reach public if he just tells that from today onwards our children should use only unpainted pencil. Everybody will start using. I may tell this hundred times a day. Nobody might use it.
We need such people to bring change in our society. They are all gifted people.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: They are not ordinary. They are gifted. I am also gifted to small extent. But they are gifted to a very big extent. And they should make difference in our society.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Wonderful, sir.
Radiation Exposure in Air Travel
Coming to aircraft?
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yeah. I have traveled to 178 countries. Every week I travel at least once.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Okay.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Today I’m going to Bangalore. Day after tomorrow I’m taking the flight to Bombay. Every time I take the flight I know I am at 35,000, 40,000 feet altitude. Because pilot, we are now at 40,000 feet. We are at outside temperature is minus 35. We still maintain inside temperature 25 degrees.
All the things at that altitude, radiation is so severe. Cosmic rays, gamma rays so severe. If I get exposed to that radiation for few minutes I may develop skin cancer. When I go to mountains as a mountaineer, stay there for 15 days, 30 days I become jet black.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Skin turns black. Why? The melanin pigment increases so that radiation is filtered. So that I don’t, my organs will not suffer.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct, correct, correct, correct.
Lead: A Protective Metal That Becomes Deadly Inside Living Organisms
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Aircraft outer sheet is made up of lead vinyl material. It filters all the radiation. It protects me. Lead is a wonderful metal which has protected me from cancer. Lead is a wonderful metal which protected all the seven bridges in the New York to Manhattan. One of them was not painted. It almost developed rust and it was about to collapse.
Paint. Leaded paint protected submarines and the bridges and high rise building structures. Lead protected. But for lead, I would not have come by that taxi today cab to this place. Lead acid battery was required to start. But for lead at home, my child or grandchild would not have continued to read because of but for that inverter. When current went, we did not know many 2020s started functioning on that.
Lead is a wonderful metal which made our life very comfortable. Otherwise I would not have had. I would have had only coconut buttons. Lead is a wonderful metal. I am extremely grateful to the lead. But if the lead enters any living organism, it becomes terrible. Deadliest. We should not allow lead to enter our system. We should be cautious. We should be careful. We should have sufficient knowledge about how it gets into our body, from which root it gets in.
Lead Contamination in Temple Prasad
For example, I will tell you. See, we are all, most of us, irrespective of whichever religion we belong to. Maybe Muslim, Christian, Hindu, whatever it is, Parsi, whatever it is, we have faith and beliefs which is moving us.
Once I went to Tirupati Balaji temple. I told you they had put a lead seal between stone slabs. A lead was concrete. After the darshan, they used to give some curd rice or prasad. Prasad. Prasad. I used to eat, wash my hands. It used to go and settle in the crevasse, stinking. Then somebody advised them to remove that concrete, seal it with lead. A good suggestion. Without realizing what are the impact.
Later on, between night one to three o’clock, they used to pump water from the wells to make that prasad. What is that? Tirupati Prasad. I said no, no. Lead content is very high. It is not Ladu leddu. Of course they realize that they have changed it with epoxy.
Now things are most of the temples. Most of the temples in our country, whether it is a church or a temple or a mosque, they have put steel rods to control crowd and rod. Where they have put their steel, it should not move. They have molten lead. They have put to fix it.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes. So the lead is entering the prasad.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Also when they wash it. And same water is used to make something automatically it has to come. Whatever you throw, it comes back to you.
Protecting Children from Lead in School Buses
You know school buses. I tell all the schools in the country, please, next time when you repaint your buses, please insist that you have lead content below 90 ppm. To protect your children will be more intelligent. You will get higher marks in your school. And there will be more donations coming. More fees you can charge. People will start coming.
Innovative Projects for Lead Awareness
We have created thanks to my friend, one of our team members, Professor Yan Shashidara. Yeah, he’s a creative man. Very creative. He made four projects for the country. Excellent.
Project one is called QPEC, Quality Play Environment for Children. What? He said there are a lot of playgrounds in your apartment. Also your playground. You invite National Referral Center to come and check if they’re related in this playground. If it is not there, you will get a certificate “Child Safe.” This child safe certificate we give, we are given it to many places. That is the beauty of this quality play environment for children. No barbed wires, no sharp stones, no lead in the paint and sand everywhere. So that even if they fall, they will not gain. It’s a total care.
The second thing project he created was Leader. What is that Leader? We thought that going to government secretaries, ministers will not solve the problem. They are there for short period of time. They have priorities, they will focus. I don’t blame them. But if I go to a school, educate about 50 teachers in the school on whatever I am talking to you, whatever I have spoken to the viewers.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: These teachers can communicate to their children at least 500 children in a year. Children will go educate their parents and another four or five members in the family. Cascading effect will be there. This called Leader Project, Lead Educator. We give them certificate. One day workshop teachers will assemble. We tell them, we give them learning material PowerPoint. They can use it anywhere in whichever language they want. Now we have AI to translate anything, correct?
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Correct.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: Yeah, we have given that. It’s called Lead Educator. Called Leader. Last year is Educator, the second project.
Global Lead Awareness Week
And I’m so happy to be with you discussing this period is a Lead Awareness Week. Global Lead Awareness Week. October end is a Global Lead Awareness week. All over the world people are celebrating. What a coincidence. I tell you the great coincidence today. And all the credit should go to you.
I must tell you this pod, whatever you make, send it to the two, three international organizations including WHO. I’ll send you all the address. And you will get recognition because of this. Do that. That is something like award. Million dollar award to you. That as an individual, without knowing that there’s Lead Awareness Week in the month of October, you have done it.
Now I’m telling you. You say I’m very happy to have this program during the Lead Awareness week. And it will create awareness throughout the year. From now onwards to many people, normally Lead Awareness week, they conduct seminars, discussion and then they forget. This will continue.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes, most certainly, sir. Sir, I cannot thank you enough for this conversation.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: You are like my daughter. My daughter never thanked father. Did you thank your father? Anytime. I would not have traveled, Ma.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yeah.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: With the present condition, I would not have traveled.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I love this. I had not even seen you, met you. I came here.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Yes, yes, yes.
DR. THUPPIL VENKATESH: I’m so happy I’m with my daughter today.
SHLLOKA JOSHII: Oh, that’s so sweet. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.