Question

Harads
of lising Fertilisers​

Answer 1

Answer:

The media has consistently reported on cancer deaths in the Malwa region of Punjab. While a definite scientific finding on the same is awaited, there have been varying conclusions which may, at best, be speculative in nature.

But first, it is important to bring out facts which are uncontested. Studies have pegged consumption of phosphatic fertilizers in Punjab at ten times higher than the national average. For potato, the national average of consumption is 15-20 kg per acre. In Punjab it is 200 kg per acre.

Similarly, for paddy fields, the consumption is 75-100 kg per acre as compared to the national average of 10 kg per acre.

Pursuant to the disquieting reports from the area, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 2013 analysed fertiliser and soil samples from the Malwa region and discovered heavy concentration of Uranium. This was specific to the phosphatic fertilizer (DAP or Diammonium Phosphate).

According to the report, Uranium concentration in DAP was around 91.77 parts per million (ppm), which was way beyond the permissible limit.

The total fertilizer consumption in India is 27 million tones, out of which about 20-25 per cent of phosphorous and nitrogen-based nutrients are dependent on imports from the United States, Jordan, Iran, Oman, China, Russia, Morocco, Israel, Lithuania and Egypt.

It is also a fact that the fertiliser industry in India does not follow all procedures and protocols essential for decontamination of imported phosphatic rock associated with traces of Uranium.

On the other hand, fertiliser industries in the US and Israel, ensure complete decontamination before use. It is understood that the decontamination process, which is expensive, is not taken into consideration by the domestic industry.

There is yet another theory which does not support the fertiliser route for Uranium ingestion through food chain, but emphasises on the geogenic factors for the possible presence of Uranium in the groundwater samples.