& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Kit itself unfit

Mobile courts, cops using wrong device to detect formalin in fruits, food; destruction of fruits comes under serious question

Porimol Palma ami Suman Saha
The manager of a superstore in Dhaka bought Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 at the instruction of mobile courts. He was surprised when the kit detected upto 30ppm "formalin" in honeydew melon (Bangi), berries and pineapples.
"Instantly, I withdrew the fruits from the store and sent those to the Science Laboratory for tests. No formalin was found," he said, wishing not to be named.
Mobile courts have been using Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 over the last two years for detecting formalin in fish, fruits and vegetables.
But food scientists say the kit is meant to measure chemicals or gases in the air of laboratories, not in food items. It is not used for detecting formalin in food in the US, the origin of the instrument.
"Apart from formalin, this machine can read other chemicals containing aldehyde, ketone or hydroxyl groups," said Dr Monirul Islam, director (nutrition) at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC).
I Ie has assessed the detector while conducting a study on food adulteration.
"Even if some amount of ripening agent ethephon is present in food, the instrument will read that too. So, its reading can never be precise at all," he said.
Aldehyde and ketones are widespread in nature. They also exist in
FROM PAGE 1
various products, including tobacco smoke, dyes, carpets, building materials and furniture. Some amount of natural formaldehyde also exists in fish, fruits and vegetables, he said.
"Fruit ripening agent ethephon is widely used. But its level after 24 hours of use gets very low. It is not harmful below 2ppm. So, should the farmer or trader be punished if the very device reads high level of ethephon?"
In Bangladesh, mobile courts put the food items in a polythene packet and measure formalin inside it with the handheld device.
Monirul Islam said if fruits, fish or vegetables are put in a polythene packet, there could be chemical polyethylene glycol emerging from the polythene. This might interfere with the reading.
The device comes under question at a time when mobile courts and DMP are conducting drives to check formalin use which has created widespread panic among consumers.
"I am totally scared of fruits in Dhaka, and have stopped buying mangoes and litchis. Now we are trying to buy fruits directly from our village home in Dinajpur,"said DinaFarhana, a nutritionist working at an NGO.
She said children and pregnant women who need to eat fruits daily are suffering the most in nutritional terms, and urgent action is required to prevent a mixing of toxic chemicals, which causes various health hazards.
The mobile courts in their drives across the county destroyed nearly nine tonnes of fish, some seven tonnes of fruits, 480 litres of milk after "detecting formalin" in the two years since April 2012.
Besides, joints teams of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) from Tuesday started checking all the consignments of fruits at eight entry points of the capital. These teams also use Formaldehyde Meter Z-300.
NO SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENT?
The Department of Fisheries (DoF) first imported the instrument through international tender from the US manufacturer, Environmental Sensors Co, under a project titled Control of Formalin Use in Fish Preservation and Mass Awareness Campaign in early 2012.
In the initial stage of the project in 2011, the DoF had signed a memorandum of understanding to buy over 16,000 formalin detection kits developed by the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), commonly known as the Science Laboratory.
"We found the Science Laboratory | BCSIR| kit is not able to detect formalin below 5ppm. So, we had decided to import a digital device that can measure the toxic substance anywhere," said Dr GM Shamsul Kabir, director of formalin control project.
The digital device can measure formalin from 0-34 parts per million (ppm) and at -20 C° to +40 C°. Also, it
is easy to use, he added.
Under the three-year project involving Tk 5 crore, they bought 80 devices at a cost ofTk 1 crore and distributed them to every division and district of the country for the mobile courts to conduct drives.
Asked if any technical committee had recommended importing the instrument, Dr Kabir said, "The fisheries department did it. Everybody on the steering committee of the project also approved it."
The steering committee was comprised of officials from the ministries of fisheries and planning but none from any scientific organisations. The then fisheries ministry secretary Ujjwal Bikash Dutta chaired the committee.
On Monirul Islam's findings, Kabir said, "If he [Monirul] has found something, he should share with us. Scattered remarks are not expected."
Nasima Khan, principal scientific officer at the Institute of Food Science & Technology of BCSIR, said they did not get any invitation from the DoF in
this regard.
"We are hundred percent confident about our kit. At the field level, it can measure formalin from 5ppm. At the laboratory, the range starts from 2ppm," she said about the kit developed by BCSIR.
She refused to make any comment on the imported machine.
However, following in the footsteps of DoF, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), Dhaka City Corporation, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), the Directorate of Consumers Rights also purchased Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 from Tracer Electrocom Bangladesh, the lone importer of the tool.
Helal Uddin, vice president of FBCCI, said the tool even gives reading of formalin when kept at an office room where there were no fruits or vegetables.
He said the DMP, which has started massive inspection at the entry points of Dhaka, should not destroy fruits on
the basis of tests done by the instrument.
"The fruits should be sent to the Science Lab or the BSTI for tests before destruction," Helal Uddin said.
Dhaka University Pharmaceutical Technology Professor ABM Faroque observed that the formalin detection kit developed by the BCSIR was more than enough.
"The problem of formalin is getting bigger. Does that mean that now we will all be importing the expensive kits from abroad? I do not think so," he said.
He said industrial and lab demand of formalin in Bangladesh is no more than 100 tonnes.
According to the National Board of Revenue, formalin import in 2011-12 was 205 tonnes, 24 percent less than in the previous fiscal year.
"After import, formalin is sold to the small shops, especially hardware shops. Tell the mobile courts to raid those shops to stop its widespread use," Faroque said.