`Population exposed to water contaminants need safe drinking water’

Speed Post News Network

Patna: Two scientists from USA and Sweden delivered lecture at a scientific lecture session organised at Mahavir Cancer Sansthan and Research Centre(MCSRC) on Saturday. Dr Dhruv Kumar, post doctoral fellow at School of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Centre, Kansas City, USA, who is working on cancer detection, treatment and prevention for last ten years, delivered lecture on `Role of Tumour Associated Fibroblasts in Head and Neck Tumour Progression’. He spoke on modern tools to detect cancer in early stage and elaborated the mechanism of spread of cancr of head and neck. Dr Kumar said that head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide with about 40,000 new cases every year in USA and   five lakh worldwide with surgery and radiation being the mainstay of the treatment.

Nandita Singh,Associate Professor in Water Resources Management at Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden, spoke on issues related to impact of contaminated water on health. She said with changing time and ovr exploitation of groundwater today water has many contaminants like arsenic, fluoride, nitrate and peticides having multiple health impacts starting from simple skin manifestations to cancer of liver, gall bladder, skin and lung, she said. Bihar is prone to all these contaminants and safe drinking water is an urgent need for the population exposed to them.