A call for changes to the legislation governing chemical assault has come from two of the island’s senior plastic surgeons, who say there has been a significant number of attacks locally.

“We’ve been trying to pursue legislation change against people assaulting other people with chemicals. We’ve noted a huge rise in the last couple of years,” senior surgeon at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) Dr Rajeev Venugopal told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

According to Dr Venugopal, the penalty for chemical attacks is often left up to a judge’s discretion — a far cry from what obtains in several other countries, especially those in Asia.

Added to that, he said that the tone in judgements shifted only after a “landmark” paper was written on the topic by noted plastic surgeons Dr Guyan Arscott and Dr Joseph Branday.

The 1996 journal article cited incidence of chemical burn injuries in Jamaican hospitals, compared to those in other developed countries. It revealed that the use of common chemicals for assault and defensive weapons was a problem.

“There were stricter penalties passed by judges which reduced the rate of assaults, but in the last four or five years when we reviewed our numbers [they] are actually rising. We had the opportunity to look at the actual legal Act and there’s no specific thing against that in our Act. It’s really left to the judges themselves to make the final decision,” the doctor stated.

Jamaica’s Offences Against the Person Act outlines that a person who unlawfully and maliciously wounds or inflicts any grievous bodily harm on another person, either with or without any weapon or instrument, will be found guilty of a misdemeanour, and will be convicted and liable to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years, with or without hard labour.

“There are other countries, especially in the east and even in the UK (United Kingdom), where — because of the increase in incidents, especially against females — the female lawyers have pushed and created legislation within their government to punish these people. In Bangladesh, which is a Muslim country, if you damage the face or any sexual [organ] your punishment is death. If you throw any acid and you hit the torso, meaning the body or the hands or feet, you get 10 years’ minimum. If you throw and you miss, you get five years,” Dr Venugopal explained.

“Things like that have to be looked at. We’ve been in touch with the Ministry of Health trying to push for this change. Of the review we’ve done, 20 per cent of the UHWI admissions have been due to chemical assault,” he added.

Of the 405 admissions for burns at Kingston Public Hospital, 65 were chemicals, Dr Venugopal shared.

Senior plastic surgeon at UHWI Dr Guyan Arscott, in the meantime, said there is generally a misconception that plastic surgeons can readily rectify damage done by chemical assaults.

“A lot of time when these predetermined assaults take place, a lot of times they think that plastic surgeons can fix it. We can categorically state that some of the traumatic injuries like gunshot and stab wounds to the liver and the spleen, those individuals have a far better chance of surviving and getting back to production than those who have been maimed with chemical burns. They are destroyed for life, and I’m talking about serious destruction here. Their eyes are gone, nose gone and we have hellish amount of work doing. This costs the country a lot so it’s a serious issue,” said Dr Arscott who, along with Dr Venugopal, will meet with colleagues from across the Caribbean at a major plastic surgery conference in Montego Bay today.

The conference will examine current issues that are relevant to both the public and private sector, and is a result of collaboration between the Caribbean Association of Plastic Surgeons and local plastic surgeons.