What’s your poison?

IT’S there in your your water, milk, fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat, wheatflour, bottled water and now...soft drinks. For some time evidence has been mounting against pesticides—from brain damaged infants in Rajasthan to cancer cases in Kerala. The latest report on pesticides in Coke and Pepsi is just another grim reminder that much of what we eat and drink is contaminated. There have been sporadic reports from across the country — in February this year, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based NGO, blew the whistle on the bottled water industry when it found high levels of pesticides in almost all brands. It has now followed up with its tests on soft drinks.

Food for grave thought
• There are no safe limits for pesticides in food products • Almost all food commodities in India are contaminated with pesticides • Pesticides cause long-term harm. Cancer, hormone disruption and immunity loss are linked to them • All that exists in regulations is some friendly advice to companies Earlier, a seven-year study conducted across 12 states by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) found dangerously high residues of pesticides (HCH and DDT) in milk products. ‘‘Almost all food commodities in India are contaminated with residues of pesticides, particularly DDT and BHC,’’ says N P Agnihotri of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. Ahmedabad-based CERC found pesticide residues in wheatflour. Fruits are not far behind. ‘‘Grapes, bananas and apples sold around Bangalore carry intolerably high levels of pesticides,’’ says T N Prakash of Bangalore-based University of Agricultural Sciences.

The question then is why is the government not stopping pesticides from becoming a part of our dinner table menu? Not only are there no standards for pesticide limits in soft drinks in India, there are none even for drinking water. Even more alarming — the limit for deadly arsenic and lead in soft drinks has been set 50 times higher than the permissible standards for bottled water or drinking water. Where is all this pesticide coming from? When India was busy increasing its food production by four times, correspondingly the pesticide consumption increased nine-fold.

Today, the pesticide industry in India is the fourth largest in the world and second largest in the Asia-Pacific region, after China. Estimates of its market value vary between Rs 3,800 and Rs 4,100 crore. It also has the dubious distinction of producing more than a dozen pesticides and insecticides that have been banned the world over. Adding to this mess is India’s unregulated food industry. Food products are licensed under the Food Products Order and further regulated under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The BIS standards (Bureau of Indian Standards), are largely voluntary. With multiplicity of agencies, even these standards do not get enforced.

And if you want to go to the courts to tackle pesticides, you might as well give up. A pesticide cannot be de-registered even if there is scientific proof that it is harmful. The pesticide industry’s strength lies in a large and cultivated network of scientists, agriculturalists and officials who spring to its defence whenever it’s caught on the wrong foot. ‘‘Pesticide companies don’t adhere to the same standards in India,’’ says Ravi Agarwal of Shristi, an NGO fighting pesticide companies. After the CSE findings on pesticides in colas, people are now waiting for the government to act.

(Indian Express, August 10, 2003)

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