ICMR interim report links high levels of selenium in wheat to hair loss

Intake of excessive selenium leads to a condition called selenosis, which is characterised by sudden hair loss
| Photo Credit: CDC

Three Zika virus cases in Gujarat detected between November 2016 and February 2017 were kept under wraps till WHO announced the outbreak on May 26, 2017; the Health Ministry had informed WHO about the three cases on May 15, 2017. The case of high levels of selenium in wheat distributed by Public Distribution System (PDS) outlets causing increased selenium levels and sudden hair loss in over 300 people in Shegaon taluka in Buldhana district, Maharashtra, seems to be following the same pattern — reluctance of the Health Ministry to keep all the stakeholders informed and make the findings public, and then claim there is no conclusive evidence to link high selenium levels in wheat with sudden hair loss.

Between end-December 2024 and January this year, over 300 cases of sudden hair loss were reported in people living in 18 villages in Shegaon taluka. From January 14-17, a team of scientists from ICMR institutes and AIIMS Delhi visited three villages and collected samples from people affected and unaffected (control) by sudden hair loss. Samples of wheat and rice from affected and unaffected households and from ration shops were collected, as well as water and soil samples. Contrary to claims made by government sources, no other samples of food items were collected for testing by the ICMR-AIIMS team. The samples were sent for testing to ICMR-National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH) in Bhopal and AIIMS Delhi.

A PTI report published on February 25 said that very high levels of selenium found in wheat was the reason for the sudden hair loss, based on an independent investigation by Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar of Bawaskar Hospital and Research Centre in Raigad. The ICMR-AIIMS team found high selenium in blood and hair samples of affected people, and the link between high selenium levels in wheat and hair loss nearly a month before Dr. Bawaskar’s investigation revealed them. But the findings of the ICMR-AIIMS team have not been made public till date.

In an interim report submitted to the Health Ministry on January 28, ICMR clearly said that the amount of selenium detected in the blood of affected individuals was about 31 times higher than controls. The selenium content was also high in wheat samples collected from two ration shops and a few households of affected people. Water samples were tested for nearly two-dozen heavy metals, and all were within permissible limits. Based on these findings, the interim report says that high selenium levels in wheat could have caused sudden hair loss. Intake of excessive selenium through food and/or water leads to a condition called selenosis, which is characterised by hair loss, which is what was seen in people in Shegaon taluka.

Blood samples tested by ICMR-NIREH found that people with sudden hair loss had selenium levels nearly 31 times higher than individuals without hair loss from households with no cases of hair loss in the family. Selenium levels in the affected people were three times more than the unaffected individuals from the same households as the affected people. Blood samples tested by AIIMS Delhi found that the selenium levels were about 25 times more than the controls, and the selenium levels in hair samples from people with sudden hair loss were also high compared with the control group.

Testing by ICMR-NIREH of wheat samples supplied by two ration shops to the affected people living in two villages had selenium two-eight times higher than normal values. The selenium level in the wheat sample collected from a household where an affected person was living was high and comparable to the selenium levels in wheat available at the ration shop. Compared with households of unaffected individuals, people from affected households consumed wheat and rice supplied by PDS shops. The presence of wheat with high levels of selenium both in the ration shops and in the affected households clearly establishes that wheat distributed by the PDS outlets as the source of selenium for the affected people.

As per a Letter published in 2016 in the Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprology, a study by the SMS Medical College and Hospital in Jaipur found 15 individuals from two families with high to extreme selenium toxicity. Selenium in wheat samples was 250 times higher. As per a 2004 report in Down to Earth, large tracts of agriculture lands in Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahar districts in Punjab are impacted and people in many villages in these districts are affected by selenium toxicity.

It must be noted that while every family receives PDS wheat, not everyone eats this wheat. Many families have wheat grown in their own field. As a result, the wheat samples collected from houses were not necessarily received from PDS shops. Curiously, people who had sudden hair loss in end-December 2024 had good hair regrowth even though they continued to consume wheat supplied by PDS shops. This suggests that the exposure to high selenium was only for a short time probably because only a few sacks of wheat had high selenium levels. That cases were reported only from 12-15 villages again support the hypothesis that only a few sacks would have had high selenium. It is therefore necessary to carry out further investigations by testing additional wheat samples from the entire supply chain of PDS to ensure that high selenium wheat is not present in the supply chain.