[Assam] From Outlook India--Another Indian Horror Story

[Chan Mahanta]

http://www.outlookindia.com/fullprint.asp?choice=1&fodname=20071224&fname=Cancer+%28F%29&sid=1

Poison Earth

Courtesy an overzealous Green Revolution, Punjab has poison in its 
water and a cancer epidemic on its hands

CHANDER SUTA DOGRA
The Curse Is Spreading

     * The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research 
in Chandigarh has conducted a study over two years in five villages 
along Punjab's major rivulets in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar 
districts
     * 88 per cent ground water samples showed alarming levels of 
mercury, over 50 per cent samples of ground and tap water 
contaminated by arsenic
     * Lady's fingers, carrots, gourds, cauliflower and chillies found 
to have toxic levels of lead, cadmium, mercury; cadmium, arsenic, 
mercury are known carcinogens; mercury also affects the nervous system
     * Pesticides beyond permissible limit found in vegetables, 
fodder, human and bovine milk, as well as blood samples
     * 65 per cent blood samples showed DNA mutation; there has been a 
sharp increase in cancer, neurological disorders, liver and kidney 
diseases, congenital defects, miscarriages
     * This health crisis has been caused by the overuse of pesticides 
and the dumping of industrial effluents, which have made soil and 
water toxic

Though it constitutes 2.5% of the country's area, Punjab accounts for 
18% of pesticide used in the country

***
Baljeet Kaur of Giana village in Punjab's cotton belt has been 
battling cancer for the last 10 years. First it was her husband who 
died of colon cancer, now she has cancer of the oesophagus. Her 
neighbour Mukhtiar Kaur is being treated for breast cancer. The 
family had a hand pump at home which provided them water for their 
daily needs but abandoned it after health officials told them its 
water was toxic. Now they get raw canal water for drinking and 
cooking. "Who knows if it is the water which has brought this disease 
on me?" she says. "All I know is that scores of people in our village 
are dying of cancer." In neighbouring Jajjal, the word cancer only 
evokes deja vu. Karnail Singh and his wife Balbir Kaur both have 
cancer, live in adjoining houses, each with one of their sons. "This 
village is cursed," says their brother Jarnail Singh.


On death row: Jajjal's Karnail Singh and his wife both have cancer, 
live in adjoining houses, each with a son

In Ghaunzpur in Ludhiana district, a good 200 km away, Manjit and 
Gurjit Singh lost both their parents to hepatitis; an uncle is 
afflicted with the same. The water from the hand pump in the 
courtyard turns foamy when heated, so they have dug a submersible 
pump which pumps out water from 300 ft below. Other households in the 
village cannot afford to do so.

For Punjab's prosperous farming households and lush green fields, the 
famed Green Revolution is beginning to turn bilious from within. Its 
gushing tubewells, the cattle heavy with milk, the trolleys laden 
with vegetables destined for urban markets-all are likely to be 
contaminated with toxins. The state is sitting on an environmental 
crisis and few of have any idea of how to tackle it.

Some two years ago, when reports of increased cancer deaths first 
started coming in from the state's cotton belt, the Chandigarh-based 
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) 
decided to investigate. A preliminary study it conducted found a much 
higher prevalence of cancer in the Talwandi Sabo block and the 
presence of heavy metals and pesticides in drinking water in the 
area. It recommended a comprehensive study of the status of 
environmental health in Punjab's other cotton-growing areas, the 
setting up of a cancer registry in the state, and regular monitoring 
of the drinking water. Of course, intense pressure from the 
pesticides lobby ensured none of this came to pass and the report was 
ignored.

This month, the PGIMER's department of community medicine has 
submitted a comprehensive epidemiological study (see box) in areas 
along the state's five major rivulets to the State Pollution Control 
Board. The results are so shocking that the board has put it under 
wraps and is having second thoughts about releasing it. Says Dr J.S. 
Thakur, an assistant professor at PGIMER, who conducted the study, 
"Our two studies show that all of Punjab is toxic and people do not 
have safe water to drink. Both agricultural and industrial 
malpractices are to be blamed for this."

The worst affected is the southeastern Malwa region, better known 
these days as the 'cancer belt'. To counter increasingly resistant 
pests, farmers here spray their fields with pesticide doses far above 
those recommended-often cocktailing two or more chemicals. As the 
former sarpanch of Jajjal, Najar Singh, told Outlook, "Although the 
recommended dose is about five sprays per season, we sometimes spray 
our fields 25 to 30 times. Almost every third day!" Punjab, which 
makes up for just 2.5 per cent of the country's area, accounts for 18 
per cent of the pesticides used in the country.

The state's problem is their unregulated use, say experts, with most 
farmers unaware of how to use or dispose of the empty pesticide cans. 
So, in the last four decades pesticides have seeped into the 
underground water aquifers, as also in the state's water bodies. And 
in the last 10 years, more and more well-off households along the 
drains have begun setting up submersible pumps to get water from deep 
aquifers, as water from taps and handpumps is unfit for human use.

Punjab's finance minister Manpreet Badal is a legislator from Muktsar 
district's Gidderbaha, located in the cancer belt. "In the 50 
villages in my constituency," he says, "there'd be a thousand-odd 
cancer cases. I've lost count of the funerals of cancer victims I've 
attended in my area since the beginning of this year. It is an 
epidemic here." A train leaving from Bhatinda to Bikaner has been 
dubbed 'cancer express' as most patients from here go to Bikaner's 
cancer hospital for treatment. Even a child in these parts knows what 
chemotherapy is about. "Our neighbour used to take hot injections 
before she died last year," says little Kiranjot at Chandbaja village 
in Faridkot district. "Many others in our village have taken them."


Giana's Baljeet Kaur has cancer of the oesophagus

Dr G.P.I. Singh, who heads the department of community medicine in 
Ludhiana's Dayanand Medical College, has recently begun studying, 
along with other private doctors across the state and NGO Kheti 
Virasat Mission (KVM), the impact of heavy metals and pesticides on 
reproductive health in Punjab. "One of the things worrying us," he 
says, "is that the skewed sex ratio in both Punjab and Haryana could 
also be due to chemical exposure, as the female foetus is more 
vulnerable. We notice an increase in spontaneous abortions, 
infertility, distorted menarche and foetuses with neural tube 
defects." There is also a high incidence of grey hair among children 
and young adults in this area. Ask for one, and most villages throw 
up several.

Not just pesticides, but unchecked effluent flow from industries into 
the rivers and drains too has contaminated underground water in 
Punjab. At Ghaunzpur, for instance, five paper mills dump their 
entire effluent unchecked into the Buddha Nullah. However, the state 
pollution board which is supposed to check industries such as these 
from polluting water bodies couldn't be bothered. This is evident 
from the response of the board's chairman, Yogesh Goel, when queried 
about the PGIMER report."I'm busy right now. You can ask the 
secretary of the board about it," he told Outlook. Quite predictably, 
the secretary too made himself unavailable. KVM director Umendra 
Dutt, who has been most active in raising the issue of cancer deaths 
in Punjab, feels that agricultural scientists in cahoots with 
pesticide manufacturing mncs have led to this health crisis. "All 
these years agricultural scientists have been advocating heavy doses 
of pesticides without informing farmers of the damage improper usage 
causes," he says.

Meanwhile, though officials are aware of the problem, the state is 
yet to evolve a concrete water policy to address the problem. Says 
J.R. Kundal, Punjab's secretary for water supply and sanitation, 
"Ideally, there should be an umbrella task force to deal with the 
problem in its entirety," he says. "Presently, different agencies are 
conducting overlapping studies which will take us nowhere. I am 
heading a task force to study arsenic in water, while the state 
planning board is looking into drinking water and allied issues. 
Although 90 per cent of the underground water is used for irrigation 
and just 10 per cent for drinking water, we realise that this 10 per 
cent is crucial for the health of our people."

With the government unsure of what to do, Manpreet Badal has 
installed four distribution points supplying Reverse Osmosis water in 
his constituency. "Till a statewide water supply scheme comes up," 
says he, "I've taken this interim measure." His people are lucky. 
Others in the state are condemned to drinking polluted water and 
suffer from deadly diseases, reaping the poisoned fruit of a Green 
Revolution gone unchecked.

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