Occupational disease claims another life in Mehsana

Occupational health experts who first examined four of these victims last June were alarmed that severe ailments were setting in and killing the workers faster than silicosis,a terminal respiratory disease with similar symptoms.

The Gujarat High Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the cases based on newspaper reports and asked the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) and the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to screen workers at the factory.

The court was told an examination of 84 workers found 12 had “fibrotic activity in the lungs”,nine had “restrictive types of impairment” in their pulmonary systems and one had liver problems. It was recommended they be removed from the workplace until they got better.

The episode had evinced interest from the health and scientific community,and a US-based occupational health centre had even published a report on whether or not such nano-particles could cause health problems.

In Neelam’s case,her husband Puroshottam had disappeared from home last July,the same day Neelam had to be admitted to a hospital in Ahmedabad. Relatives remember an ambulance was on the way to their Kadi home when Puroshottam left. His body was later found in a nearby canal.

“We think he was very upset after the doctors told him that his wife would never recover and medical equipment would have to be used at home to keep her condition stable,” said his brother Ganesh,adding that the company footed the bill for Neelam’s treatment.

A 26-year-old man from the same town,Bhavesh Patel,had also died from similar ailments at a private hospital in Ahmedabad last October.

The first fatality was recorded in August 2010. Alka Thakor’s mother Madhuben remembered her daughter succumbed to respiratory problems on the eve of Independence Day.

Another woman,Naina Gajjar,was diagnosed with “severe fibrosis along with pneumo-thorax”. Yet another,Chandrika Thakor (28),is bed-ridden. Doctors had noted she suffers from “occupational lung disease”.

A man called Vipul Darji (21) is also suffering from respiratory ailments and is reportedly being looked after at home with an oxygen concentrator machine bought for him by the company.