The incidents involving sudden loss of hair in the Buldhana district in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra could be linked to high high selenium content found in wheat from Punjab and Haryana supplied by local ration shops.
Selenium is a chemical element that is placed in the oxygen group of the periodic table – and is often found in combination with metals like mercury, copper, silver or lead.
Selenium, which is a metalloid – an element intermediate in properties between the metals and the nonmetals – is rare, composing approximately 90 parts per billion of the crust of Earth.
Around 250-300 persons in the Shegaon tehsil of Buldhana have suffered hair loss in December 2024 and January-February 2025.
People across all age-groups were found to be affected among the cases that have come to light.
Selenium is found in food sources, including meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, as well as foods grown in soil which is selenium-rich.
Teams of officials of the Public Health and Family Welfare Department and Medical Education Department are working on the issue.
“In some families more than one person is witnessing hair loss,” said Rama Patil, who is the sarpanch of Bondgaon village.
People face symptoms like headache, fever, scalp itching, tingling and loose motions and leading to hair loss (alopecia).
Dr Himmatrao Bawaskar, the Managing Director of Bawaskar Hospital and Research Centre in Raigad, who conducted a research, feels that it is because of the selenium content found in wheat procured from Punjab and Haryana and distributed through ration shops under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
“The primary cause of the outbreak was linked to wheat imported from Punjab and Haryana, which has been found to have a significantly higher selenium content than locally produced wheat. Our analysis of wheat from the affected region revealed that it contained 600 times more selenium than the locally grown variety. This high selenium intake is believed to be the cause of the alopecia cases,” he said.
Blood, urine, hair samples and stool samples were examined as part of the research.