MUMBAI: Cancer caused almost 70% of the 3,887 health-related deaths in the atomic energy hubs across the country over the last 20 years, an RTI reply has revealed. In all, 2,600 succumbed to cancer in 19 centres between 1995 and 2014.The query to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre BARC ), which, like the others, is under the Department of Atomic Energy, had another shocking revelation: 255 employees took their own lives while in harness in the same period, meaning an average of almost one every month over 20 years. Investigations showed they were mostly over prolonged illness or family problems.Cancer is among the top ten killers in India, and accounts for around 7% of the roughly 9.5 million annual deaths, as has been estimated by the Centre's ongoing Million Deaths Study."But such high cancer mortality (as in the DAE centres) is alarming and needs to be analyzed further to check if it occurred among people who were in touch with radioactive material or among the non-scientific staff," said Dr Altaf Patel, a senior physician and former teacher at J J Hospital, Byculla, about the data.The data was procured by activist Chetan Kothari. TOI repeatedly tried to contact BARC's head of media relations R K Singh, but could not get a response.Dr Shashank Joshi, senior endocrinologist and president of the Association of Physicians of India, said there is an established link between cancer and radiation. "However, I am a bit sceptical of this data because it's difficult to establish the cause-and-effect correlation without studying the cases."A senior oncologist with Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel was also sceptical. The death certificates in the cases need to be closely studied, he said. "A cancer patient can die of a number of causes. How can we say 70% died due to cancer?" he asked.Another oncologist pointed out that the data says the deaths occurred while the people were still in employment. "Cancer is a disease of the old. If it occurred in so many people below 60, it is a matter of concern."Dr Joshi added that the incidence of cancer is rising across the world. "If the BARC data shows such high cancer mortality, it calls for stringent safety standards."Kothari's RTI data showed that the remaining 1,287 of the 3,887 health-related deaths occurred due to the following reasons: cardiac arrest, strokes, liver failure, multiple organ failure, tuberculosis, cardio-respiratory diseases, septicemia, cirrhosis of liver, cerebro-vascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, mellitus, asthma and hypertension.Kothari said most of the deceased in the report were between 29 and 50. Several centres have not dwelt on the reason behind the suicides or how various other illnesses were contracted by the deceased."A majority of death of its gazetted officers reported in the DAE centres across the country was found to have been caused by cancer and not radiation. It is impossible to trace one single factor as being responsible for the cancer," said a retired senior BARC scientist.(Opening of BARC reactor by PM Jawaharlal Nehru on January 16, 1961. Photo: Getty Images)If a person is exposed to radiation, he or she has got more chances of getting cancer. But it is necessary to identify how many radiation units the person has been exposed to and for how long to arrive at a conclusion, the scientist added.When TOI tried to contact BARC's head of media relations R K Singh on Wednesday, a woman staffer in Singh's office said he was on official tour. She asked TOI to mail the query to the BARC director and controller's office for details. Till late on Saturday evening, BARC officials had not replied.On February 12, 2014, V Narayanasamy, then minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions, and Prime Minister's Office (which handled DAE), had told the Lok Sabha all suicide cases have been investigated by the local police. Findings indicate the suicides were committed following prolonged illness and family problems.He added: "Safety and security measures to prevent casualties are in place at all nuclear power plants. Security and safety instructions issued by various security agencies and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board are strictly implemented at all nuclear power plant sites and residential townships".