In a village in India, one in 35 persons suffers from cancer. In a metro like Delhi, the corresponding figure is one in 6. Delhi has twice the number of blood cancer cases than Bombay and Calcutta put together. As leukemia and other pollution related diseases force more and more people to stay at home in Indian cities, a National Conference on Health and Environment, organised by the Centre for Science and Environment, finds that because India cannot afford treatment of diseases caused by poor environmental conditions, prevention is indeed better than cure.

"We have wrongly assumed that business, trade and technology are our slaves," the Vice President of India, Krishan Kant, said while inaugurating a three day National Conference on Health and Environment in the Capital today. "In fact, we have become their slaves." Mr. Kant was reacting to a speech by CSE Director Anil Agarwal, summarising the harmful health effects of industry, urbanisation and agriculture, which have launched a three pronged attack on basic human amenities like air, water and the soil.

Agarwal quoted a study by the World Bank, which stated that when the Asian economy doubled, the pollution load in Asian countries increased 10 times. The result was an increase in incidences of cancer, a sharp decline in the sperm count of men, hormonal disorders, besides increased respiratory and skin diseases. A CSE study showed that while India’s GDP increased 2.5 times from 1975 to 1995, the total pollution load in the air and water from industrial activity alone increased four-fold. "This clearly indicates that India is growing in economic terms but it is also becoming increasingly polluted," said Agarwal.

The Conference is being attended by specialists from India and abroad, studying the health effects of water pollution, vector management, air pollution, toxins, sanitation etc. While chairing the inaugural session, Dr. V Ramalingaswami, National Research Professor at AIIMS and CSE Board Member, pointed out that safe water, hygienic disposal of wastes and environmental sanitation still remain an unfulfilled dream in India. In addition, about 100,000 chemicals are being produced on an industrial scale and introduced into the environment. Many of these chemicals are endocrine disruptors, now a cause of deep concern with the recent discovery of a decrease of sperm counts in numerous population in the world. A study conducted in India found that less than 30 percent men had semen with normal characteristics.

Addressing a session on Water Pollution and Health, PS Dutta from the Nuclear Research Laboratory, New Delhi, said that Delhi’s increased dependence on groundwater was dangerous, since the water was getting increasingly contaminated, and very little was known about the health effects of groundwater contamination. Groundwater could also cause diseases such as fluorosis, which damages the teeth, bone and soft tissue, and is caused due to excess flouride in drinking water. According to a paper presented by AK Susheela from the Fluorosis Research and Development Foundation, an estimated 62 million rural population is affected by fluorosis.

Contaminated groundwater was also the cause for arsenic poising in West Bengal, said Dipankar Chakraborti, from the School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Arsenic contamination can cause skin cancer or even cirrhosis.

In a parallel session on Vectors and Environmental Management, V P Sharma from the Malaria Research Centre (MRC) pointed out that 50 percent of the Malaria occurring in India is manmade. The government’s current thrust in using pesticides for the control of Malaria was unproductive, unsustainable and injurious to the human health and the environment. Instead, ‘bioenvironmental interventions’, such as closing open drains which could lead to mosquito infestations, have to be implemented. The MRC has already implemented the strategy in some places in Karnataka and Maharashtra. "Environmental management will address vector breeding," said T Jacob John from the Christian Medical College, Vellore. "While this alone will not be sufficient, other interventions may not be successful without it."

The major vector borne diseases in India are malaria, Kalaazar, japanese encephalitis, dengue and lymphatic filariasis. While 40 percent of the total number of cases of lymphatic filariasis in the world occur in India, kalaazar is confined to the subcontinent, restricted to humid eastern parts of the sub-continent. But of late new foci have been reported in irrigated tracts of Gujarat, western India, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. "DDT continues to be the insecticide of choice to control kalaazar, but political will is a must for the success of the control programme," said NL Kalra, also from the Malaria Research Centre.

A World Bank study has shown that the economic costs of the deaths and illnesses caused by air and water pollution in India was as much as Rs 24,000 crore --- the cost of two Narmada dams -- every year. "The treatment, if any, of such diseases are extremely expensive," pointed out Mr Krishan Kant during the inaugural. "Hence the poor are likely to suffer the most from the ecological changes that are taking place."

The second day of the conference will focus on the health impacts of Environmental Toxins and Ambient Air pollution. A public lecture on Global Climate Change and Environmental Health will be delivered at 7 p.m. at the India Habitat Centre by Dr. Karim Ahmed from the World Resources Institute, Washington.