The silent killers are here

As we propagate the burning of waste, municipal and medical, we threaten not only the present generation, but also future ones. Two recent s...

As we propagate the burning of waste, municipal and medical, we threaten not only the present generation, but also future ones. Two recent studies, based on Indian samples, show that dioxins, the most toxic chemicals known to man, have been found to be in very high amounts in Indian breast milk, meat and dairy products. Until now ignored as a western problem, this scary trend should make our environmental managers and industry sit up.

Unintended byproducts of waste-burning or using chlorine in industrial processes, dioxins cause cancer, and a host of endocrinal and neurological health effects. Their fear has pushed developed countries to shift to safer processes and waste disposal methods, and communities have fought hard and loud against this invasion of their bodies.

Why are these studies so significant? Firstly, they are the first ones to be carried out in India, and among a few in the developing world. Secondly, till date we have been refusing to acknowledge that dioxins are a problem. In the recently concluded UNEP Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, India was silent on the dioxin issue treating it as 8216;8216;not our problem.8217;8217;

The first study reveals that Indian men and women could have levels upto 10 times even the very conservative WHO limits of one to four pico gram per kilo of body weight. Indian food such as fish, meat, has been found to be contaminated, while birds and the Ganges river dolphin have levels upto 500 times above prescribed ones. The other study based on human breast milk samples from Perungudi, Chennai, indicates that significant pollution sources of dioxins are present in waste-dumping sites in this country, probably due the burning of municipal wastes. These levels were higher than those found in human breast milk even in industrialised countries.

Dioxins are toxic in even minuscule quantities. They accumulate in fat, and multiply up the food chain, concentrating in larger birds, animals and mammals. A breast-feeding mother can pass on very high levels of dioxins in her body to the infant, since breast milk is dissolved fat. Studies have linked third generation effects from dioxin exposure caused by the spraying of the dioxin-laden herbicide 8212; Agent Orange 8212; during the Vietnam War.

In India we are likely to face a crisis very soon. While the developed world has over the years managed to reduce dioxin emissions through expensive measures and strict regulation, we do not even have the facilities to test them. Simultaneously there is a transfer of dirty technologies into India. Waste incineration, the highest source of dioxin releases abroad, is being not only propagated, but also subsidised in India. Such high heat processes are the main sources of dioxin worldwide. We are openly inviting all these technologies, through a program of the ministry of non-conventional energy sources, Government of India. Other sources include some pesticides, paper manufacturing, and hazardous waste incineration.

World wide, there is a move to prevent the formation of killers like dioxins rather than regulate them. We in India still have an option of using cleaner technologies, and not burning our waste, besides shifting from chlorinated plastics such as PCV to other polymers. Instead of fresh investment in dirty and obsolete technologies we must promote environmentally clean investments. Dioxins are a reality, silent killers and the ghosts of our deeds which have come to haunt us.