KARWAR: ‘The Retrospective Analysis of Health Profile of Employees of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL)’, which was released by director (operations) of NPCIL, G Nageshwar Rao, at Kaiga Generating Station on Saturday provides an interesting read.
Epidemiological surveys conducted at the respective sites bear significance since they were carried out by Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), Mumbai, in association with medical colleges located near the sites. In the case of Kaiga, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, was associated with TMH.
The survey was conducted in 1998 before the Kaiga plant started its operations. Therefore, this study only provides baseline data for further investigation on the health of the respondents.
The primary emphasis of the survey was cancer prevalence among all and the prevalence of congenital anomalies in the offspring of Kaiga employees and villagers around Kaiga. The survey covered 1,553 employees, 1,162 spouses of employees and 1,343 of their offspring besides the population of 32,000 residing in a 20 km radius of Kaiga Nuclear Plant spanning 85 villages.
The survey report says there were no cases of cancer detected in the spouses and offspring of employees. The prevalence of congenital anomalies among the offspring of employees was just 0.45 per thousand persons. The survey revealed that four per cent of people in the villages had some family history of cancer. There were 10 cases of cancer accounting for 31.5 per one lakh persons.
Of them, six were cases of oral cancer and three were cases of breast cancer.
It was found in the survey that 13 per cent of marriages were consanguineous marriages in which marriage between first cousins was 46.8 per cent followed by marriage between uncle and niece was 27.9 per cent. Such marriages are one of the factors for congenital anomalies and infertility.