EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE, EVERY DROP YOU DRINK.... COULD BE KILLING YOU

In a village in India, one in 35 persons suffer from cancer. In a metro like Delhi, the corresponding figure is one in 6. Delhi has twice the number of blood cancer cases than Bombay and Calcutta put together. As leukemia and other pollution related diseases force more and more people to stay at home in Indian cities, a National Conference on Health and Environment, organised by the Centre for Science and Environment, finds that because India cannot afford treatment of diseases caused by poor environmental conditions, prevention is indeed better than cure.

A study by the World Bank, which stated that when the Asian economy doubled, the pollution load in Asian countries increased 10 times. The result was an increase in incidences of cancer, a sharp decline in the sperm count of men, hormonal disorders, besides increased respiratory and skin diseases. Safe water, hygienic disposal of wastes and environmental sanitation still remain an unfulfilled dream in India. In addition, about 100,000 chemicals are being produced on an industrial scale and introduced into the environment. Many of these chemicals are endocrine disruptors, now a cause of deep concern with the recent discovery of a decrease of sperm counts in numerous populations in the world. A study conducted in India found that less than 30 percent men had semen with normal characteristics.

Delhi’s increased dependence on groundwater was dangerous, since the water was getting increasingly contaminated, and very little was known about the health effects of groundwater contamination. Groundwater could also cause diseases such as fluorosis, Contaminated groundwater was also the cause for arsenic poising in West Bengal.

50 percent of the Malaria occurring in India is manmade. The government’s current thrust in using pesticides for the control of Malaria was unproductive, unsustainable and injurious to the human health and the environment. Instead, ‘bioenvironmental interventions’, such as closing open drains, which could lead to mosquito infestations, have to be implemented.

The major vector borne diseases in India are malaria, Kalaazar, japanese encephalitis, dengue and lymphatic filariasis. While 40 percent of the total number of cases of lymphatic filariasis in the world occurs in India A World Bank study has shown that the economic costs of the deaths and illnesses caused by air and water pollution in India was as much as Rs 24,000 crore --- the cost of two Narmada dams -- every year.