ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT

REPORT ON URANIUM POSIONING IN PUNJAB

SUBMITTED BY:NIRANJANA CHANDRAN

Uranium poisoning in Punjab first made news in March 2009, when a South African Board Certified Candidate Clinical Metal Toxicologist, Carin Smit, visiting Faridkot city in Punjab, India, instrumental in having hair and urine samples taken (2008/9) of 149/53 children respectively, who affected with birth abnormalities including physical deformities, neurological and mental disorders. These samples were shipped to Microtrace Mineral Lab, Germany. At the onset of the action research project, it was expected hat heavy metal / chemistry toxicity might be implicated as reasons why these children were so badly affected. Surprisingly, high levels of uranium were found in 88% of the samples, and in the case of one child, the levels were more than 60 times the maximum safe limit. A study, carried out amongst mentally retarded children in the Malwa region of Punjab, revealed 87% of children below 12 years and 82% beyond that age having uranium levels high enough to cause diseases, also uranium levels in samples of three kids from Kotkapura and Faridkot were 62, 44 and 27 times higher than normal. Subsequently, the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children, Faridkot, sent samples of five children from the worst-affected village, Teja Rohela, near Fazilka, which has over 100 children which are congenitally mentally and physically challenged, to the same lab. As early as 1995, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) released a report, showing the presence of uranium and other heavy metals beyond permissible limits in water samples collected from Bathinda and Amritsar district, however there was no response from the government time at time. The hotspot for this increased toxicity, however was the Malwa region of Punjab, which showed extremely high levels of chemical, biological and radioactive toxicity, including uranium contamination. As the region's groundwater and food chain was gradually contaminated by industrial effluents flowing into fresh water sources used both for irrigation and drinking purposes, the region showed a rise in neurological diseases, and a sharp increase in cancer cases and kidney ailments, for example in Muktsar district between 2001 and 2009, 1,074 people died of cancer. Over the years, a case of slow poisoning was suspected by health workers of the Baba Farid Center For Special Children (BFCSC) in Bathinda and Faridkot, when they saw a sharp increase in the number of severely handicapped children, birth defects like hydrocephaly, microcephaly, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and other physical and mental abnormalities, and cancers in children. In March 2008, Dr Carin Smit, a Candidate Clinical Metal toxicologist, in private practice in South Africa, and Vera Dirr, a teacher of children with cerebral palsy, alarmed after seen a high incidences of abnormalities in local children at the Baba Farid Center For Special Children (BFCSC) in Faridkot, a not-for-profit organization working with kids, ailing from autism, cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders requested help for laboratory tests from Microtarce Mineral Lab, Germany. The centre reported a rise in the number of cases in the last six to seven years. The BFCSC uses naturopathic principles to treat is patients.

According to the WHOs recommendations, the maximum concentration of uranium in water should be 20 micrograms/litre. Concentrations of uranium in water samples collected in Bhatinda were found to be very high and very unsafe from the health hazard point of view. The researchers had suggested more detailed investigations in the area to reach some conclusion. Subsequent tests, carried out on the ground water displayed levels of uranium as high as 224mcg/l (micrograms per litre). However, samples taken in the vicinity of the around the coalfired power plants were up to 15 times above the World Health Organisation's maximum safe limits. It was found that the contamination included a large parts of the state of Punjab, home to 24 million people. In 2010, water samples taken from Buddha Nullah, a highly polluted water canal, which merges into the Sutlej River, showed heavy metal content as quite high and the presence of uranium 1 times the reference range., and together with other forms of pollution, like ammonia, phosphate, chloride, chromium, arsenic and chlorpyrifos pesticides, the rivulet, is now being termed as "Other Bhopal" in the making. Smit says she had suspected the presence of other heavy metals like tin, lead, aluminium, manganese and iron even before sending the first samples to Trace Minerals, the lab in Germany. But she had not anticipated the presence of uranium in most of the hair samples -- some 87% of the 149 samples. The uranium traces Smit stumbled upon have now prompted the state government to send a team of five experts to collect water and soil samples from the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children for testing at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The team also collected hair, blood and urine samples from five children and their parents which, a member on condition of anonymity said, have been sent to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has also begun investigations to discover the source of the radioactivity. A three-member team was rushed to Faridkot from Mumbai on April 6. We have collected hair samples and soil, water and food samples from the Faridkot centre, says Swapnesh Malhotra, a member of the investigating team.

Causes
An investigation carried out The Observer newspaper, in 2009, revealed the possible that cause of contamination of soil and ground water in Malwa region of Punjab, to be the fly ash from coal burnt at thermal power plants, which contains high levels of uranium and ash as the region has state's two biggest coal-fired power stations. Tests on ground water carried out by Dr Chander Parkash, a wetland ecologist and Dr Surinder Singh, also at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, found the highest average concentration of uranium 56.95mcg/l, in the town of Bhucho Mandi in Bathinda district, a short distance from the ash pond of Lehra Mohabat thermal power plant. At village Jai Singh Wala, close to the Batinda ash pond, similar test results showed an average level of 52.79mcg/l.

Meanwhile, speculation abounds. What baffles many is that there are no uranium mines in Punjab. One of the theories doing the rounds is that the uranium may have come from Iraq where the US army uses it in its warheads. Some suspect air contamination caused by uranium-laden winds from Afghanistan, while others feel water contamination caused by toxic scrap dumped in the states Sutlej and Beas rivers may be the cause. R Sreedhar, convenor of the non-profit Mines, Mineral and People, says the uranium could have originated from thermal power plants. Coal, used in thermal power plants, is known to have radioactive material like radon and uranium, he explains. Prithpal Singh too suspects thermal power plants in the neighbouring district of Bathinda. Forty of the 149 samples tested were of children and adults from Bathinda, he argues.

Response
News of these findings sparked a controversy in the media, as the Government of Punjab in April 2009, ordered a probe into the matter, and a series of tests with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay were conducted. It was later stated, "there is no side affect of uranium and they have studied in the hair parts and the levels are very much below the levels. So that can't cause any mental retardation or any abnormality, "The government attributed the abnormalities to genetic disorders. The local media, however blamed the government for the absence of proper norms to monitor the environmental impact of ash ponds, and lack of proper study of the prevalent uranium contamination in the region. The Punjab government remains helpless, with no clue as to the source of the uranium. State health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawala tried to evade responsibility by saying: We have no idea as to why such high concentrations of uranium are present here. The Centre must look into this.