India: Fluorosis takes its toll on Bihar village residents

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India: Fluorosis takes its toll on Bihar village residents

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First Posted: 25 Mar 2006 03:42 am

Fluorosis takes its toll on Bihar village residents

newkerala.com - March 24, 2006

Bhithouri (Bihar): A large number of residents of a remote non-descript village in Bihar are suffering from some physical disability or other due to the excessive fluoride content in the ground water that these villages draw to drink.

It’s only the plain drinking water that disables these otherwise perfectly fit residents of Bhithouri village. And the cause of agony for the residents of this village is an excessive fluoride content in the drinking water causing fluorosis, which causes deformity to legs and decay of the teeth.

Every second person -- children as well as adults -- is suffering from deformed limbs, cataract, and premature ageing.

Dhaneshwar Singh, a resident of the village said that the situation is so bad that no one wants to marry the boys and girls from this village.

"After drinking this contaminated water our children also turn crippled. And after watching condition, people do not drink water here at all. And people do not want to marry our young girls and boys," he said.

Water, the otherwise ‘drink of life’ in this case is proving more of a curse as it slowly but surely poisons the residents of this tiny village. Water running out of a hand pump stains the ground beneath, eating it away, as proof of the harmful effects of fluoride content in the water.

Boys and girls, with bent legs need support to move about as the young frail bodies succumb to the disease.

Mani Devi, another resident said that despite investigations proving the presence of excessive fluoride in the water, nothing has been done on the part of Government.

"There are 13 children who have become physically challenged. Doctors and senior officials had come here for investigations and found that there was excessive fluoride in water but nothing has been done," she said.

However Prem Kumar, of the Public Health and Engineering department said water filters have been provided and efforts are on to ensure availability of pure water to the village.

"We have provided them with water filters and we are also going to carry out boring so that pure water in made available to them," he said.

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 due to excessive accumulation of fluoride in bones and the latter affects the teeth.

Doctors say surgery is the only solution for flurosis, that too after the fluoride content in the body has been brought down.

SOURCE:
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?acti ... s&id=30782
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