"India's Generation of Children Crippled by Uranium Waste"

"Bathinda, India -- Their heads are too large or too small, their limbs too short or too bent. For some, their brains never grew, speech never came and their lives are likely to be cut short: these are the children it appears that India would rather the world did not see, the victims of a scandal with potential implications far beyond the country's borders. ...

The children had massive levels of uranium in their bodies, in one case more than 60 times the maximum safe limit. ...

An Observer investigation has now uncovered disturbing evidence to suggest a link between the contamination and the region's coal-fired power stations. ...

The findings have implications not only for the rest of India – Punjab produces two-thirds of the wheat in the country's central reserves and 40% of its rice – but for many other countries planning to build new power plants, including China, Russia, India, Germany and the US. In Britain...."

Gethin Chamberlain reports for the London Observer, August 30, 2009.