An interim report of the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, has attributed high incidence of cancer in villages in the vicinity of the Kaiga nuclear power plant to tobacco consumption by the people, noting that radiations from the facility has nothing to do with the cancer cases.
Environmentalists had earlier blamed the radiations for the increasing cases of cancer in these villages. This had led the government to order an independent study by the hospital. The interim report was submitted to the Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Kannada district in December 2014. A team of doctors from the hospital had conducted a health check-up of more than 12,000 people in 40 villages as part of the study that began in 2012. Villages in Karwar, Yellapur and Ankola taluks were covered under the study.
A few patients had been referred to the hospital in Mumbai for treatment, besides being provided financial help.
The report says that tobacco consumption, change in food habits and lifestyles of the people are the reasons for the rise in cancer cases, like in any other region. It says that tobacco consumption is high among people detected with cancer in the region. The number of people consuming tobacco is high even among 52 people with suspected cancer, it says.
The hospital will continue the study in villages within a radius of 16 km to 45 km of the power plant. The documentation process of cancer patients undergoing treatment in Karwar, Joida, Yellapur, Kumta and Honnavar taluks is on. A survey of the places where these patients are undergoing treatment is also on.
The Tata Memorial Hospital plans to open a diagnosis-cum-treatment unit at the Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences, so that patients need not visit far-off places like Hubballi, Manipal, Belagavi and Mumbai.
The report submitted by the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, has found that incidence of cancer is not high in the Kaiga region, Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Ujwalkumar Ghosh said.