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BITTER TRUTH

Rampant adulteration plays havoc
Adulteration is rampant in the country. From vegetables, fish, milk, fruit, sweetmeats, ice cream, to spices, nothing is safe. Packaged and bottled drinks mixed with harmful ingredients and chemicals, both locally produced and imported are being sold freely. Oblivious of the dangers lurking in the
everyday food items, children are eating foods that are actually laced with poison!
With institutional corruption ingrained in every level of our society and societal protest and government action apparently missing, unscrupulous traders and factory owners are resorting to dishonest and unethical activities through adding harmful and toxic substances in food items. With the advent of
Ramadan, dishonest traders, food manufacturers, sweetmeat shop owners and fruit vendors, even if they are performing all religious rites as Muslims, can hardly check their greed for quick money.
As long as consumers consider food adulteration a minor problem and the government plays down its impact on the health of the citizens, there is no escaping the grave health hazard. The chairman of the Pharmacology Department, BSMMUH, opined that unsafe foods containing a range of pathogens, traces of chemical pesticides, metals and food additives pose a serious threat to health. Experts say that adulterated and pesticide-laden foods have largely led to diseases like cancer, kidney damage, diabetes, jaundice and liver cirrhosis in a large number of urban people who have little choice but to eat such foods they buy from the city markets.
Illiterate and gullible farmers use pesticides to prevent insect attack and rotting as well as to ensure long shelf-life of their produce. Unless the government slaps a total ban on import of these poisons at the trader level, there can be no escape from the health hazards they pose. Unscrupulous businessmen use toxic chemicals like formalin, and another recently introduced chemical ethofen, and textile dyes for preserving fruits, milk and fish.
Experts say that one of the important reasons for infertility is the presence of residues of pesticides, growth hormones, heavy metals and mycotoxins in foodstuff. The main reason for this is that our farmers are not properly trained in the use of chemical fertilizers. Experts believe that lax monitoring and lack of adequate training are largely responsible for the serious health impacts that the nation continues to pay. Other than BSTI, public health officials must work with motivation and commitment to arrest this menacing trend and strike at the root of the problem.
In absence of effluent treatment plants (ETP) in industries in the proximity of farmland and lack of training and knowledge of the farmers, the factory wastes, fertilizer and pesticide residues are drained out into the farmlands and ultimately contaminate the farm produce.
A study by the Institute of Public Health revealed that more than 50% of the samples of ghee, edible oils, powdered milk, juices, ice cream, sweetmeats, jam, jelly, curd, chilli powder, coriander and even the water they tested were adulterated. Reports published by the BSTI recently revealed that the production of contami-
Other than BSTI, no agency under the ministry of health, or the ministry of agriculture or the ministry of science and technology has conducted any examination of the pesticide-residue levels or toxic chemicals in the foodstuff being marketed.
nated drinking water has been increasing in the country. BSTI revealed that there are about 1,000 drinking water factories in the country but only 400 of them have taken licenses from the BSTI.
Textile dyes which are highly injurious to health are being randomly used to colour sweetmeats like kalojam, chamcham, cakes and pastries. Urea fertilizer is used for whitening puffed rice. A section of factory owners, through use of low quality oil and mustard colour continue to market mustard oil that has strong bite. When import of soya bean oil becomes uncertain or the price shoots up in the international market for any reason, the local market manipulators mix palm oil with soya bean oil.
Ethylene oxide and calcium carbide are used to ripen fruits like papya, mango and banana. Experts in medical biology' point out that ethylene oxide is carcinogenic and when used on food might invite a disaster. The key findings of the EPA study group suggest that many children may develop cancer sometime during their lifetime as a result of the pesticide or toxic-laden produce they consume.
Fish is considered an essential protein for people of
all categories and ages. Many fish sellers spray fish with formalin, an organic chemical usually used for preservation of tissues. It makes the fish stiff and keeps them looking brighter for longer. Regular intake of such adulterated fish might cause cancer.
Because children are consuming pesticide-laden or toxic food, they are likely to be more vulnerable to diseases than adults. Cell division in children is more rapid and organs like liver and kidney may not be as efficient in removing toxic chemicals.
The month of Ramadan will bring woes for the fasting Muslims because of the excessive fried items, mostly prepared with burnt oil, consumed during this month. Some restaurant owners use refined engine oil to fry chicken, kabab, peaju and potato crisps. Engine oil used as cooking ingredient makes food tasty, they claim. Defying health department regulations, many restaurant owners and street vendors use left-over cooking oil. This increases the peroxide limit of the oil, turning it toxic.
Drives conducted by the mobile courts during the month of Ramadan are only palliative, and are not a permanent solution. In most of them, only the manager and employees of the fake factories get caught, but the factory owners or traders remain far away from the clutches of law enforcement agency because of their high connections.
In a recent drive conducted by the mobile court set up by the BSTI, some restaurants and sweet-meat shops were slapped fines ranging from Tk.30,000 to Tk.3 lacs. Such monetary fines cannot cure the disease ingrained in the system unless the real culprits are booked and exemplary punishment is meted out to them.
Other than BSTI, no agency under the ministry of health, or the ministry of agriculture or the ministry of science and technology^ has conducted any examination of the pesticide-residue levels or toxic chemicals in the foodstuff being marketed. With a totally inefficient monitoring system, just having tough laws is not enough to keep unscrupulous traders from tampering with food items
Despite the fact that pure food ordinance 2005 was there, there was hardly any effort to enforce it. Even when the apex court issued orders again in 2009 for setting up food courts and food testing centres in every district, no effort was taken to implement them.
Given the political will, it will not be very difficult to control this nefarious business indulged in by a handful of traders who are out to kill people by slow poisoning simply for minting money.
The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star. E-mail: aukhandk@gamil.com