Children - Terre des Hommes

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Children in stone quarries hit by lung disease
Anuradha Mascarenhas | Posted: Jan 05, 2008 at
0000 hrs IST
Pune, January 4 With their play tools being stone, mud
and dust, children living in stone quarries in Pune district
are exposed to environmental pollutants and face a high
risk of chronic lung disease. Checking on the health
conditions of children living at stone quarries at Moshi
and Moi, some 20 kms away from Pune city, medicos were
taken aback at their dismal lung function capacity.
The peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) of 150 children
living at stone quarries at Moshi and Moi were examined
and compared to those of children living in urban slum
areas near Bhosari. The team of experts from the D Y
Patil Medical College, Pimpri, who conducted the study
and presented their findings at an international pediatric
conference in Athens, were shocked to find a variation
among the PEFR rates of children living at stone quarries
and in urban slums.
Says Dr Sharad Agharkhedkar, head of the college’s
Department of Paediatrics, the average PEFR of children
living at stone quarries was 92.98 litres per minute as
compared to the children living in urban slum areas
whose PEFR was an approximate 135.2 litres per minute.
“The peak flow meter measures the patient’s maximum
ability to expel air from the lungs or the PEFR. Peak
flow readings are higher when patients are well and
lower when the airways are constricted,” explains Dr
Sampada Tambolkar, one of the coordinators of the study
that observed the children for a period of three months.
From changes in recorded values, patients and doctors
can determine the lung functionality, severity of asthma
symptoms and treatment options.
This constant exposure to particulate matter in the
form of dust particles has shown that there is a
significant variation in the PEFR among children living
at stone quarries. Children in the age group 3-18 years
were observed for three months. Another batch of
150 children was identified at a slum in Bhosari. ``We
observed that they suffered from symptoms like recurrent
cold and cough, runny nose and breathlessness,’’ says
Agharkhedkar who concluded in the study that exposure
to dust particles has resulted in wheezing.
Ambaulim students face mining dust in
classroom!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Seen in the photo dust created at the speed breaker due
to spread of ore and primary school situated by the side
of the road. Photo by John Fernandes.
The students of Government primary School Ambaulim
Chinchawada Quepem are constantly exposed to dust
pollution created by the overloaded mining truck.
The Government primary school which is adjacent to the
Quepem Ambaulim main road wherein 19 students are
studying. That just opposite to the school, in order to
regulate the speed of the mining truck the PWD has put
up a speed breaker. All the mining trucks plying over this
route are overloaded, the iron ore constantly drops on
the road particularly at the speed breaker which gradually
turns into dust. “The dust problem is so much that most
of the school children has developed sinus problem as
a result the student often are sick which result in drop
in attendance” informed the teacher of the school when
contacted on a condition not to publish her name.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/children-in-stonequarries-hit-by-lung-disease/257713/
http://mandgoa.blogspot.com/2009/12/seen-in-photo-dustcreated-at-speed.html