Health checkup of children should be carried out regularly in the Anganwadi centres and primary schools across the district to assess their health status mainly to know whether they are affected with fluorosis, said Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak. He was addressing a meeting on action plan for mitigation of fluoride.
Since dental fluorosis shows the presence of excess fluoride in the body, the treatment can be started early. The health check- up can be carried out by the Rastriya Bal Swastha Karyakram facilities. From each block the vehicle would move for the check- up, Nayak stated.
He directed the direct Collector to conduct a thorough survey and conduct IEC (information, education and communication) activities in the worst affected patches immediately. Nayak further asked the district Collector to conduct a monthly basis review meeting in coordination with the concerned departments including RWSS, Health and experts in the field.
It may be recalled that an expert team was invited by MP RK Jena to address the issue in January this year. The team had observed fluoride presence in the ground water of some of the patches of the district and cautioned that consumption of water could cause serious health hazards.
The team members included Rajnarayan Indu and Sunderrajan Krishnan, of a Gujarat based organisation which worked for safe and sustainable drinking water and a dentist Sundar M Senthilnathan of Bangalore and Utkarsha Bharadwaj of Swanti Initiatives.
The team during its visit to Remuna and Bhograi besides collecting drinking water samples also medically examined the school children. The members also met some patients who have become victims of deformity after consuming high level fluoride contained water for a long time. MP Jena said “ Though fluoride content in some patches of the district is very high, yet unfortunately in the report of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme no such observation was made. Hence, there is a need of a comprehensive study across the district.”
The ruling party Chief Whip Ananta Das mentioned about the plight of residents of the affected patches of his constituency.
District Collector Pramod Das, Sadar MlA J Dash , Basta MlA Nityanada Sahu , PD DRDA Uday Naryan Das and ZP president Umilata Das were among present in the metering.