Punjab, August 31: Pollution from coal-fired thermal plants at Bathinda and Faridkot in Punjab has caused an alarming increase in the number of birth defects, physical and mental abnormalities and cancers in newborns, according to a visiting scientist.
The matter came to light when the scientist, Dr Carin Smit, the South African clinical metal toxicologist, carried out tests at a German laboratory. The results found high levels of uranium in the newborns, in one case more than 60 times than the World Health Organisation’s maximum safe limit, The Observer reported.
The newspaper’s investigation revealed that the test results, being done on the infants and children living in areas around the state’s power stations, show high levels of uranium in their bodies. Tests on ground water show that levels of uranium around the plants are up to 15 times than maximum safe limits and extends across large parts of the state, which is home to around 24 million people.
According to the report, the findings will have implications for the rest of India, as Punjab produces two-thirds of the wheat in the country’s central reserves and 40 per cent of its rice.
The victims are being treated at the Baba Farid Centres for Special Children in Bathinda, where there are two coal-fired thermal plants and in nearby Faridkot. Staff at these clinics first voiced their concerns about the increasing number of cases involving severely handicapped children. They were being born with hydrocephaly, microcephaly, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and other complications. Several have already died.
Dr Pritpal Singh, who runs the Faridkot clinic, said the number of children affected by the pollution had risen dramatically in the past six or seven years. He said the Indian authorities appeared determined to bury the scandal. ”They can’t just detoxify these kids, they have to detoxify the whole Punjab. That is the reason for their reluctance,” he said. ”They threatened us and said if we didn’t stop commenting on what’s happening, they would close our clinic.” ”But I decided that if I kept silent it would go on for years and no one would do anything about it. If I keep silent then the next day it will be my child. The children are dying in front of me,” Dr Singh added.
Dr Smit, who arranged for the tests to be carried out in Germany, said the situation could no longer be ignored. ”There is evidence of harm for these children in my care and… it is an imperative that their bodies be cleaned up and their metabolisms be supported to deal with such a devastating presence of radioactive material,” she said.
”If the contamination is as widespread as it would appear to be, as far west as Muktsar on the Pakistani border, and as far east as the foothills of Himachal Pradesh, then millions are at high risk and every
—-Agencies