{"id":4276,"date":"2015-01-09T06:40:49","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T11:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=4276"},"modified":"2015-01-09T06:40:49","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T11:40:49","slug":"on-the-cancer-train-of-indias-pesticides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=4276","title":{"rendered":"On the ‘Cancer Train’ of India’s pesticides"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the ‘Cancer Train’ of India’s pesticides<\/a><\/h3>\n

Bathinda, India –\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>As the digital clock beamed 21:00, the shabby and dimly lit Bathinda train station came to life as frail patients swarmed the platform and jostled for seats on the “Cancer Train”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ramkishan, a man of about 50 breathing heavily and coughing, remained seated until the rush died down, then trudged to the train and secured his reserved window seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I am going to Bikaner hospital,” he told Al Jazeera breathlessly. “I have been told I am in the final stages of cancer. I know this could be my final journey, too.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The 12-coach train has gained its name from a sudden surge in cancer cases in India’s northwest Punjab state that many blame on growing pollution and pesticide use – and an ineffective response by authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poor patients from across Punjab flock to catch the 9:30pm train to head to the desert city of Bikaner for specialist treatment, arriving early morning after a seven-hour journey. On this occasion, the train’s sole reserved compartment, with a capacity of 72, is occupied by 30 cancer patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the ‘Cancer Train’ of India’s pesticides Bathinda, India –\u00a0As the digital clock beamed 21:00, the shabby and dimly lit Bathinda train station came to life as frail patients swarmed the platform and jostled for seats on the “Cancer Train”. Ramkishan, a man of about 50 breathing heavily and coughing, remained seated until the rush […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2517,422,2516],"class_list":["post-4276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-cancer","tag-india","tag-pesticides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4277,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276\/revisions\/4277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}