Why is NIOH-ICMR 'official' making false claims on silicosis?: Health rights NGO

Counterview Desk
In a letter to the Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, Dr Jagdish Parikh, trustee, health rights NGO People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), Vadodara, and Jagdish Patel, director, PTRC, have said that the claim being made for the use of biomarker for detection of silicosis raises concern about scientific tenacity of the diagnosis of the deadly occupational disease.
The letter also objects to the reported claim by a top health official that it is possible to detect silicosis at the sub-radiological stage. It asks, “What is this subradiological stage of silicosis? We have not heard any such scientific term being used. Again, the report is using a term which is not found in any scientific literature so far. Is this term acceptable by ICMR? Is ICMR thinking of any explanation?”

Text:

This is with reference to our letter dated November 28, 2021. In our communication we had raised our concern about the scientific tenacity of the biomarker for early detection of silicosis. We had questioned sensitivity and specificity of this test. We reiterated that CC66 protein decreases in many lung diseases.
Therefore positive screening test can be due to other lung disease. The screening test is not diagnostic. It suggests high probability. Therefore, X-ray is required for confirmation. It may happen that the screening test is positive but X-ray is negative. The authors have not given data for this possibility. We have not heard from you in this regard until now.
In the meanwhile the “Times of India” carried a report in its issue of April 20, 2022. We wish to draw your attention to this report which quotes Dr Kamlesh Sarkar, Ex-Director, National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) generously. The report claims that “scientists at NIOH, based at Ahmedabad, are now in the final stages of obtaining new detection kits for subradiological silicosis for mass use.” We have failed to understand what is new? Is it something different than the kit developed in 2021?
The report identifies Dr Sarkar as ICMR-NIOH Director. As per our information Dr Sarkar had been removed long back as Director NIOH, and if the newspaper is still claiming him to be director, it is misinformation being spread, and a matter of grave concern. ICMR is expected to make public clarification in this regard as NIOH is a national institute.
The report further claims, “if silicosis is detected at the sub-radiological stage…” What is this subradiological stage of silicosis? We have not heard any such scientific term being used. Again, the report is using a term which is not found in any scientific literature so far. Is this term acceptable by ICMR? Is ICMR thinking of any explanation?
The report also claims, “if silicosis is detected at the sub-radiological stage, major silico-tuberculosis and lung cancer occurrences can be prevented.” We have not a single diagnosed case of lung cancer following silica exposure in India yet. So the claim that the test would help prevent lung cancer is farfetched.

One more false claim: “These diseases afflict lakhs of citizens in India.” How come it affects citizens? It only affects workers who are exposed to fine particles of silica over years. Is ICMR going to be mute spectator when false claims are being spread in the name of science?
The report says, “NIOH scientists say that an intervention at this stage can help save lakhs of Indians who are vulnerable to contracting TB or lung cancer.” It does not clarify on the method of intervention.
At present, the workers who have silicosis on X-ray and continue working in the very industry or occupation where they were exposed to silica, do not get any help for preventing further deterioration of the disease. Unless the government approves the method suggested by Dr Sarkar intervention is not possible.
We think that there should not be any haste in advocating this method of early detection of silicosis. another study with proper epidemiologic design is required to confirm specificity and sensitivity of the CC16 biomarker before its use on mass scale is recommended.
We invite your immediate intervention in stopping using name of ICMR and science. Let ICMR sponsor more research on proving sensitivity and specificity of CC16 to diagnose silicosis.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

Search This Blog