Fluorosis affecting the health of Jharkhand villagers

[pfpcnews]

Fluorosis affecting the health of Jharkhand villagers

dailyIndia.com - March 31, 2007

By Girija Shanker Ojha

Ranchi, Mar 31: Residents of the remote village of Chukru, which lies 20 kilometers from Jharkhand's Palamu District headquarters are experiencing various physical disabilities due to the presence of excessive fluoride in the ground water of the area.

Every second person -- children as well as adults -- is suffering from deformed limbs, cataract, or premature ageing.luorosis hit the village in 1980 when the Government constructed borewells here to solve the drinking water problem of the village.

A boon soon became a curse, as the excessive fluoride content in the water started affecting the health of the villagers.

According to a test carried out by a private organisation in 1995-1996, the ground water in the region contains excessive fluoride.

" Children born in the village after 95-96 are not healthy. Our health is also deteriorating, we cannot do much work. Now, we have started drinking water from the river. We have appealed to the government to solve this problem, but no action has been taken so far," said Prabha Ram, one of the villagers.

However, Nagendra Prasad Singh of the State Public Health Department said that water filters have been installed in the village and efforts are on to ensure the availability of pure and safe drinking water to the village.

"We have constructed 19 bore wells with water filter device under the National Employment Guarantee Scheme in three villages," said Prasad.

Villagers' complain that only one water filter device has been installed in this area, which is damaged. Fluorosis is a condition caused by the excessive intake of fluorine and is commonly of two types - skeletal fluorosis and dental fluorosis.

As the names suggest, the first affects the bones and the latter affects the teeth.

Doctors say that surgery is the only option to deal with flurosis that too after the fluoride content in the body is brought down.

SOURCE:
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/129873.p ... -villagers