http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/23/india-uranium-pollution-birth-defects
Children crippled by India's uranium waste
An Observer investigation has discovered
a link between Indian electricity stations
and physical and mental abnormalities
By Gethin Chamberlain in Punjab; The Observer (London); August 23, 2009
Hundreds of children in the Punjab have been contaminated with uranium in
a pollution scandal with implications that could extend far beyond the borders
of India.
Scientists and health workers have sounded the alarm after being confronted
with a dramatic rise in birth defects, physical and mental abnormalities, and
cancers in the Indian state. A subsequent Observer investigation has uncovered
evidence linking the contamination to ash from the region's coal-fired power
stations. Tests on children born in areas around the power stations have
revealed that many have high levels of uranium in their bodies.
The metal is concentrated in the fly ash produced when coal is burned. Tests
on ground water around the plants show levels of uranium up to 15 times
the World Health Organisation's maximum safe limits.
The revelations coincide with the publication of a report by the Russian
Academy of Sciences' Thermal Engineering journal that warns of an
increased radiation hazard to people living near coal-fired thermal power
stations.
Staff at two clinics around the Punjabi city of Bathinda -- where there are two
coal-fired thermal plants -- have reported alarming numbers of admissions of
severely handicapped children. Children were born with enlarged or small
heads, short arms and legs, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and other
complications. A German laboratory that tested samples taken from the
children found massive levels of uranium in their bodies - in one case more
than 60 times the maximum safe limit.
Studies of ground water suggest that while the uranium contamination is
heaviest around the power plants, it extends across large parts of the state,
which is home to 24 million people. The Indian government is committed to an
expansion of thermal plants in Punjab and other states. Around the world, many
other countries are planning to build new coal-fired power plants, including
China, Russia, India, Germany and the United States. In the UK, there are plans
for a coal-fired station at the Kingsnorth facility in Kent.
The children are being treated at the Baba Farid centres for special children in
Bathinda and nearby Faridkot. Dr Pritpal Singh, who is in charge of the Faridkot
clinic, said the number of children affected had risen dramatically in the past six
or seven years and claimed the authorities were 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 Carin Smit, a South African clinical metal toxicologist who arranged for the
tests to be carried out, said the situation could not 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 metabolism 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 Pakistan's border, and as far east as spreading into the foothills
of Himachal Pradesh -- then millions are at high risk and every new baby born
to a contaminated mother is at risk."
A team of scientists from India's Department of Atomic Energy visited the area
and reported that while the concentration of uranium in drinking water was
"slightly high", there was "nothing to worry about", although some of their tests
recorded levels of uranium as high as 224micrograms per litre (mcg/l) --
15 times higher than the safe level of 15mcg/l recommended by the World
Health Organisation. The US Environmental Protection Agency sets a maximum
safe level of 20mcg/l. Scientists in Punjab who have studied the presence of
uranium in the state have dismissed the government's denials as a whitewash.
Dr Chander Parkash and Dr Surinder Singh, both from Amritsar's Guru Nanak
Dev University, said it was clear that uranium was present in large quantities in
the ground water and should be investigated further.
In the Faridkot centre last week, 15-year-old Harmanbir Kaur's test results came
back and showed she had 10 times the safe limit in her body. Her brother,
Naunihal Singh, six, had double the safe levels.
Harmanbir was born in Muktsar, 40km from Faridkot. Her mother, Kulbir Kaur, 37,
has watched her child slowly degenerate from a healthy baby into the very ill girl
she is today -- dribbling constantly, unable to feed herself and lost in a world of
her own.
"God knows what sin I have committed. When we go to our village people say
there is a curse of God on you, but I don't believe so," she said. "Every part of
this area is affected. We never imagined that there would be uranium in our kids."
A few miles down the road in Bathinda, Sukhminder Singh, a 48-year-old farmer,
watched his son Kulwinder, 13, staring into space while curling his hands under
his chin. The tests showed that Kulwinder had 19 times the maximum safe level
of uranium in his body. He has cerebral palsy and has already had seven
operations to unbend his arms and legs. He is furious that the government has
ignored the evidence of a serious health risk to children in the Punjab.
"The government should investigate it because if our child is affected it will also
affect future generations," he said. "What are they waiting for? How many
children do they want to be affected? Another generation?"
Doni Choudhary, aged 15 months, is waiting to be tested, although staff say he
shows similar symptoms to children whose results have revealed dangerous
levels of uranium, and he is already being treated for suspected uranium
poisoning. His mother, Neelum, 22, from the state capital, Chandigarh, says he
was born with hydrocephaly -- water on the brain. His legs are useless.
"He is dependent on others. After me, who can care for him?" Neelum says.
"He tries to speak but he can't express himself and my heart cries. When will
he understand that his legs don't work? What will he feel?"
Some scientists have also proposed that ground water may have been
contaminated by contact with granite lying deep below the thick alluvial
deposits that form the Punjab plains, although the parents of most of the
children affected say they take their water from the mains supply, which
comes from other sources.
Meanwhile, smoke continues to pour from Faridkot's power station chimneys
and lorries shuttle backwards and forwards, taking away the fly ash to be
mixed into cement at the Ambuja factory next to the Bathinda power plant.
Inside the plant last week, there was ash everywhere, forming drifts, clinging
to the skin, getting into the throat. In the main hall, the LED display showed
the four generators are churning out 107 megawatts of electricity.
Ravindra Singh, the plant's security officer, said that most of the ash went to
the cement works, while the rest was dumped in ash ponds. The first coal-fired
power station in Punjab was commissioned in Bathinda in 1974. It was followed
by another in nearby Lehra Mohabbat in 1998.
There is a third to the east, at Ropar.
Tests on ground water in villages in Bathinda district found the highest average
concentration of uranium -- 57mcg/l, three times the EPA's safe limit -- in the
town of Bhucho Mandi, a short distance from the Lehra Mohabbat ash pond.
This level of uranium means the lifetime cancer risk in the village is more than
150 times that of the normal population
