A severe case of multiple metal poisoning in a child treated with a traditional medicine

A child who had been treated orally with a traditional medicine was admitted to hospital with diarrhoea, vomiting and severe metabolic acidosis. Following treatment for renal failure and supportive therapy, the child was discharged well. Analysis of the traditional remedy, a black powder, using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission revealed very high concentrations of iron and manganese. Other metals were also present at lesser, but still high concentrations. The composition suggested that this was a sample obtained from a surface fracture in Transvaal dolomite.Metal poisoning is not uncommon following the use of non-herbal traditional remedies in South Africa, but in this case the mixture appears to have been a combination of many metals and salts.     

Youth participation and agency in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

This article examines the participation and agency of young non-state actors (NSAs) in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It utilizes the constituency of Youth NGOs: YOUNGO, as a case study to examine the relationship between selection of participatory strategies, power sources (following Nasiritousi et al. in Int Environ Agreem Politics Law Econ 16(1):109–126, 2016), recognition and agency using ego and alter perceptions. It finds that young people’s selection of participatory strategies and power sources is shaped by the level of agency which they perceive to be available to them. When self-perception of agency is high, young participants offer constructive policy amendments which can lead to recognition and agency, though only within certain policy areas and the silos in which they are negotiated. When self-perception of agency is low, youth interpret this as lack of recognition, leading to efforts to assert their relevance and/or to challenge procedural legitimacy: neither of which are well received by decision-makers. In reality, several of the challenges faced by young participants are not structurally unique to their constituency; however, their lack of financial resources does hinder their ability to fully utilize modes of participation which previous studies have found to be beneficial to other NSAs, such as side-events. Financial constraints also restrict the ability of youth participants, many of whom are volunteers, to develop professional relationships with key actors over time, meaning that the level of agency developed by more established, better-resourced NSAs remains largely out of reach. These findings have implications for the understanding of NSA agency, which has previously been treated as homogeneous and raises further questions regarding procedural legitimacy of the UNFCCC and its role in mobilizing and empowering the next generation.