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Patna, (Bihar Times): Patna and Vaishali are the two
districts which fall in the Cancer Valley of India,
which is spread from Delhi to Patna. This region has
the second highest incidence of gall bladder in the
world after Chile. Women are the worst victim of this
disease.
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According to the survey conducted by the International
Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association 10.6 women in one
lakh suffer from this type of cancer, which is the
highest in the country. Delhi, Patna, Vaishali, Kanpur
and Varanasi are some prominent districts to fall in
this region.
Pollution of Ganga water and the soil in its vicinity
with heavy metals like lead, cadmium and chromium is
attributed to this abnormally high gall bladder in
this region, especially among women.
Over 22,000 people of the 60 villages of the region
were screened for this purpose. It was found that the
incidence of gall bladder cancer is between 12 and 20
for every one lakh population. The corresponding
figure for South India is just 0.8 and for Mumbai 1.2.
However, in Chile in South American the figure is 24
per one lakh.
According to reports three sites were selected in
Patna, Vaishali (both Bihar) and Varanasi (in Uttar
Pradesh) district. Soil and water of the region, along
with the tissues, were tested. While the soil and
water samples were sent to the Lucknow-based
Industrial Toxicology Research Centre the tissues and
hair were sent to the Aichi Cancer Centre in Nagoya in
Japan. The study was conducted jointly by Indian and
Japanese doctors in the last two years.
Dr Jitendra Kumar Singh, director of the Patna-based
Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, who was also involved in this
project, told a daily recently that as high as 13 per
patients of this hospital suffer from gall bladder
cancer.
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