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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A warning whose time has come -Azera Parveen Rahman

A warning whose time has come -Azera Parveen Rahman

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published Published on Jun 6, 2017   modified Modified on Jun 6, 2017
-The Hindu Business Line

Threat of fluoride contamination in crops looms large in Assam

Dilwar Hussain may not be able to give you the exact scientific explanation for how excessive fluoride can harm one’s bones and teeth, but he knows that it crippled his young son, causing his legs to bend.

Children suffering from skeletal and dental fluorosis — marked by stained and crooked teeth, and bent legs — are a common sight in Hussain’s village, Tapatjuri, in Assam. Fluoride-contaminated water, as the State’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has found out, is the main culprit, and the entire Hojai district is among the worst-affected.

What is more worrisome now is the high fluoride content in agricultural produce as well, including rice and tea, the two main crops of the State.

Dharani Saikia, secretary of voluntary organisation Environment Conservation Centre, has been working on the issue for more than a decade and government agencies approach him for his expertise. He recalls that the first time they detected high fluoride levels in food produce was in 2012. Until then, public awareness was limited to discouraging the use of groundwater from tube-wells. Ring-wells were recommended instead.

“On a hunch, we decided to test the rice grown on a 10-bigha field in the village. We took samples to the Pollution Control Board office in Guwahati and found they had a fluoride level of 74 ppm. The borewell water that was used for irrigation had 12 ppm fluoride,” Saikia said. The WHO standard for permissible fluoride limit is 1 mg/l (0.6-1.5 ppm). Since the same water source was used over and over again for irrigation, the levels were escalated in the crop.

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The Hindu Business Line, 2 June, 2017, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-interior/a-warning-whose-time-has-come/article9718578.ece


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