Mumbai gets ‘extreme’ doses of radiation

MUMBAI: Every time you step out into the open you are exposing yourself to another danger: ultraviolet radiation.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which measures UV radiation across 50 global cities, has given Mumbai another cause for concern.

“Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore receive extreme amounts of UV radiation, while Delhi receives very high levels,” says the report released this month. Compare that to Australian cities like Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, close to the Antarctic ozone hole, which are in the ‘veryhigh’ category. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s UV index, 9-10 is classified as ‘very high’ and 11 and above as ‘extreme’.

Sustained exposure to UV rays can cause skin diseases, including skin cancer, and eye problems.  

‘I feel like a vampire’

Every time Shrish Rao (name changed) steps out of the house he attracts stares. Despite the sweltering Mumbai heat, the 22-year-old third-year commerce student covers himself from head-to-toe and wears extra-large sunglasses.

Suffering from an extreme form of polymorphic light eruption, which is a skin condition resulting from sensitivity to light and heat, Shirish finds himself filled with rashes and painful eruptions every time he dares leave any part of his body exposed. But Shirish wasn’t always like this.

“I was always slightly sensitive to the sun, but things have got really bad in the last five years or so. My doctor had prescribed me a sun screen cream with an SPF of 15. It worked initially, but now it doesn’t work all that well,” he says.

His doctor, senior dermatologist G. Ravichandran, says: “Shirish is a rare case and is at best an indication of what can happen in the future if we don’t stop UV-B radiation. But most of the skin cases that come to me these days are due to the impact of UV rays. In fact, every third case that comes to me is a skin condition caused by exposure to sunlight and UV.”

But Shirish still finds humour in his condition. “I know I am not normal. But once the sun goes down, I am out partying with friends. I dread the sun as my doctor has told me not to venture out between 10am to 4pm. In fact I feel like a vampire, out in the night, hiding during the day,” he says laughing.

All’s not fair

Dr. Maithili Kamat of Jaslok Hospital, who also works with Kaya Skin Clinic, says heightened level of UV radiation has caused a spurt in skin and eye diseases. “The impact of UV radiation is cumulative and not immediate. And there in lies a danger because a person may not notice the changes that are taking place in him. It can as simple as tanning to skin cancer. The number of skin cases that have to me has almost doubled in the last five years.”

Health experts estimate that one in ten Mumbaikar at any given point of time has a skin condition caused by exposure to sunlight, which he or she is not even aware of. In a city of 14 million, it means that on any given day 1.4 million Mumbaikars are afflicted by a skin condition.

Ravichandran has a different worry, which is the result of the age-old Indian obsession to become fairer. “It is scientifically proven that people with less melanin – skin pigmentation – have a greater risk of skin cancer. UV rays affect fair people more than dark people. I am treating cases – both male and female – where skin rashes have been triggered off by the use of fairness creams, which work by reducing pigmentation,” he says.

But skin’s not the only thing that UV rays affect. Eye specialist, Dr B.T. Shah, says that several eye problems are the result of exposure to UV rays. “They are becoming an important factor in eye problems such as cataract, retinal degeneration and medical conditions such as pterygium (growth of tissue in the front covering of the eye),” he says.

Though there aren’t reliable figures on the number of eye cases that are a result of UV rays, sources in Lilavati, Nanavati and KEM told DNA that the number of cases being referred to the ophthalmology department has more than doubled in the last two years.

Statistics show that about nine million people are visually impaired in India. The WHO estimates that about 20 per cent of the cataracts may be due to the over-exposure to UV radiations. The lead author of the report, ophthalmologist Dr Neepa Thacker Dave, says, “UV rays can cause other problems to the eye such as tumours on the surface of the eye, photokeratitis or snow blindness and an inflammation of cornea.” 

Nature’s thrown in the towel

An average Mumbaikar’s potential exposure to ultraviolet radiation is as much as a person in Antarctica, which is also in the extreme bracket, where a gaping hole in the ozone layer lets in UV rays unhindered. More than figuring out ways to fend off frost bite, scientists who land up in Antarctica go to extreme lengths to avoid being exposed to UV radiation.

“I am not surprised. Mumbai is paying the price for not bothering about air pollution. With vehicles increasing by the day and industries spewing poisonous gases in the atmosphere nature has thrown in the towel. There is only so much abuse an ecosystem can take,” says environmentalist Debi Goenka

While there has been no systematic attempt to study the possible depletion of ozone layer over Mumbai, several environmental scientists suspect that unabated industrialisation has eroded nature’s shield. But there are few, like environmental scientist Rakesh Kumar of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), who have a different theory.

“Air pollution has decreased in Mumbai and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) levels have come down due to the use of CNG and unleaded fuel. I suspect that UV levels have increased because SPM used to act as a shield against UV rays. Ironically, reduction in atmospheric pollution seems to have taken away one of the barriers to UV rays,” says Kumar

What is alarming the scientists even more is the increasing use of HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) by the average Mumbaikar, often without even being aware of it. HCFCs are used in aerosol cans to get the ‘spray effect’. So every time you use your deodorant or an insect repellent you are releasing HCFC, which thins the ozone layer. 

So what can a Mumbaikar do to battle this invisible threat?  “You just have to be careful. Never go out without applying sunscreen, even if it is cloudy. Cover yourself as much as you can and eat vegetables like carrot and spinach, which have a lot of beta-carotene (Vitamin A), and do not ignore skin rashes,” says Maithili Kamat.