Jajpur: Panic gripped employees at the state-owned Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) at Kalinganagar in this district after 78 per cent of its regular staff were allegedly found afflicted with lungs related diseases, a report said.
A specialist doctor claimed the employees are suffering from restrictive lungs disease (RLD) which is highly critical and incurable.
The matter came to fore from the health examination reports of the staff of the NINL.
The NINL steel plant at Kalinganagar is a joint venture between public sector firm Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC) and state government-owned Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa (IPICOL) and the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
The NINL authorities conducted health check-up of 187 staffers out of which 147 were found to be suffering from RLD. The revelation has spread panic among the employees including the casual labourers and contractual staff.
The health examination of the staff was conducted by Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) which has over 360 branches all over the country.
A doctor of SRL on condition of anonymity said oxygen fails to assimilate with blood when a person gets afflicted with RLD following which he/she suffers from breathing problem and fails to exhale carbon dioxide.
The only solution is that the affected person should stay away from pollution and undergo proper medication, he said. The affected person is more likely to get further afflicted by diseases like tuberculosis and heart attack with age.
The report says that the majority of the staffers in plant have been afflicted with RLD while some of them are also affected by vision problem, diabetes, skin diseases and hearing problems.
They have been afflicted with the diseases by inhaling the toxic gas and dust emerging from the blast furnace, the coke oven plant, the cinter plant, the RMHS, the PCM (pre-casting machine) and the SMS (steel melting shop).
This has happened as the authorities never cared to find any solution to the problem. The presence of the regional office of the state pollution control board failed to act as a deterrent.
The plant authorities are cutting down on cost and pushing the lives of the poor labourers into peril.
According to information available under the Right to Information Act, over 25,726 persons in Kalinganagar industrial area have been affected with pollution related diseases.
The revelation came from the health examination of the people conducted at the Jakhpura and Ravana primary health centres which held violation of air and water pollution norms responsible for the spread of the diseases. Such violation of air and water pollution norms is also noticed in Jakhapura and Manpur railway sidings and other industrial units in the area.
When contacted, SPCB regional officer Pramod Kumar Behera said his officials are regularly visiting the plants in the area and investigating violation of pollution norms. The firms which are violating the norms are being pulled up and asked to mend their ways, he added.
PNN