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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Uranium affecting mental health of kids in Punjab by Balwant Garg

Confirming Punjab's worst fears and TOI reports, a document from Germany's Microtrace Mineral Lab has revealed that hair samples of 80% of 149 neurologically-disabled children, mainly from Punjab's Malwa region, have high levels of uranium. The report also establishes the presence of dangerous heavy metals in water.

The presence of the radioactive element has strengthened doubts that depleted uranium used by US tanks in Iraq and Afghanistan was travelling through air, reaching not just Punjab but Delhi as well. TOI was first to report the suspected presence of uranium traces in the hair of kids undergoing treatment at Baba Farid Centre for Special Children.

"Hair results are somewhat surprising. We expected an arsenic exposure. Instead, over 80% of adults and children, many of whom are suffering from cerebral palsy and mental retardation, showed pathological levels for uranium," said Dr Carin Smit, a South African toxicologist.