Pollution, pesticides making kids vulnerable to cancer

In the last one year, the number of children with cancer in the city has risen threefold. This disturbing fact has been revealed by the report of the School Health Programme for the year 2011-12.

Talking about the rise in number of cancer patients among children, Dr Shilin Shukla, director, Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI), said that this had been noticed for some time.

"Till 8-10 years back, we used to receive 500-600 cases of cancer in children. This has now doubled. Now we have nearly 1000 cases," he said. However, he expressed doubts that the number of children afflicted by the disease in AMC area had risen threefold in the last one year. "This statistic is surprising. It is possible that the same children who were found to have cancer last year again got included in this year's data. The data needs to be verified," Shukla said.

He also said that the rise in number of cases may be indicative of increased awareness among people that cancer is curable if diagnosed early. "Moreover, the state government, through its school health programme, does check-ups annually. This helps in diagnosing new cases at an early stage," he said.

When asked for the likely reasons for the rise in cancer cases, Shukla said no scientific study had been undertaken yet to find the reason.

"However, cancers of the body surface that are found in elderly people are generally not found in children. Most children with malignancy have cancer of some internal organ. One possible reason for rise in such cancers could be pollution and the increased use of pesticides," Shukla said. Oncologist Dr Parimal Jivarajani seemed to agree with Shukla's views. "Research is still going on to find out what causes cancer. But the rise in the number of schoolchildren suffering from cancer in Ahmedabad and Bharuch points the finger at pollution and chemicals in food as the likely causes," Jivarajani said.