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Scary report on toxins in food buried for 10 yrs: The Indian Express
New Delhi, Oct 29: If you thought pesticides in colas was cause for alarm, drink this: an unprecedented nationwide study of pesticide levels in our food conducted by top government agencies came up with figures so shocking that the report was withdrawn soon after it was released in 1993. All its key findings of toxin levels and its recommendations of drastic change in policy have been gathering dust-until now.
New Delhi, Oct 29: If you thought pesticides in colas was cause for alarm, drink this: an unprecedented nationwide study of pesticide levels in our food conducted by top government agencies came up with figures so shocking that the report was withdrawn soon after it was released in 1993. All its key findings of toxin levels and its recommendations of drastic change in policy have been gathering dust—until now.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee, set up after the cola controversy, has asked for copies of this 80-page report, called Surveillance of Food Contaminants in India. What the JPC will do with it is too early to say but one thing is clear: 10 precious years have been wasted.
How much pesticide is there in your food? No one’s measuring
This is just a drop •Presence of pesticide in food is inevitable. • Worldwide, if total pesticide residues are counted in a typical diet for an average person, it should fall within the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI).’
• ADI is fixed by the World Health Organization for different pesticides.
• Jammu and Kashmir, Sept 2002: State elections are a major success
• The pesticide residue consumed is calculated based on Minimum Residue Levels (MRLs) fixed for every pesticide before it is registered. • In India, MRLs are fixed only for less than half of all pesticides. • No agency monitors its levels. For, that report, prepared by the Indian Council of Medical Research and a team of the country’s top pesticide experts not only exposed the magnitude of the problem, it also was the first official report to acknowledge that no one was measuring food safety levels.
This despite the presence of two indices the world over: the Acceptable Dietary Intake (ADI) and the Minimum Residue Level (MRL) for all pesticides.
MRL for a pesticide is the minimum safe level of that pesticide’s residue that can be present in a kilogram of a particular crop.
ADI for a pesticide is the maximum amount of that pesticide residue that can be taken daily for a particular body weight without adverse health effects.
MRL and ADI, therefore, are two guideposts used to determine how safe the food is. Global regulators like WHO have developed regional diet charts to measure exposure to pesticide. But they say that each country needs to calculate their own exposure levels keeping in mind different dietary habits.
But in India, of the 183 pesticides registered, MRLs for only 70 of them have been fixed—and even these aren’t monitored. Result: there is no way to ascertain how the pesticide level in an average lunch or dinner matches with the ADI. In one study conducted as part of that ICMR report, 2,205 samples of milk collected from 12 states contained residues of DDT complex and HCH (Lindane).So high was the level of lindane in milk that the pesticide residue consumed only from milk constituted 80 per cent of its ADI when milk formed just 10 per cent of the diet. Instead of probing further, the government withdrew the report and came out with a much watered down version in 1997.
‘‘For the last 22 years, we have been telling the government that it is important to calculate risks from pesticide residues but nothing has been done,’’ said R L Kalra from the Punjab Agriculture University, who was one of the authors of the 1993 ICMR report. ‘‘Instead there is confusion, hysteria and apathy.’’
‘‘There is no policy for fixing MRLs and then doing toxicological tests to see that our pesticide exposure is within limits,’’ said a scientist working at ICMR.
Following the controversy over pesticides in bottled water and then in colas, Delhi-based NGO Srishti filed a PIL in the Supreme Court this year urging the Government to fix MRLs for pesticides. And set up an expert body for prevention, control and monitoring in the area of toxics and their effect on environment and human health.
Incidentally, after the ICMR report, there have been a string of other official studies ringing the same alarm bells all unheard by the ministries of Agriculture and Health who will now have to depose before the JPC. • 1996: ICMR found 51% of food commodities contaminated with pesticide out of which 20% had limits of pesticide exceeding their MRLs. • 1999: Study conducted by the Agriculture Ministry’s All India Coordinated Research Project showed 60% food commodities contaminated with pesticide, out of which 14% were above MRL. • 1999: AICRP showed vegetables and fruit samples from 16 states to be 100% contaminated. • 2000: Study conducted by CERC Ahmedabad found that most of wheat flour brands were contaminated with pesticides, some of which are banned in India. • 2000: Study conducted by ICMR and AICRP showed that maximum residue limit showed far above world average and also that tolerance/residue limits has never been strictly adhered to by the central government. • 2001: Study reported in ICMR bulletin showed DDT and HCH residues in human milk, human blood and fat.
How much pesticide is there in your food? No one’s measuring
This is just a drop •Presence of pesticide in food is inevitable. • Worldwide, if total pesticide residues are counted in a typical diet for an average person, it should fall within the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI).’
• ADI is fixed by the World Health Organization for different pesticides.
• Jammu and Kashmir, Sept 2002: State elections are a major success
• The pesticide residue consumed is calculated based on Minimum Residue Levels (MRLs) fixed for every pesticide before it is registered. • In India, MRLs are fixed only for less than half of all pesticides. • No agency monitors its levels. For, that report, prepared by the Indian Council of Medical Research and a team of the country’s top pesticide experts not only exposed the magnitude of the problem, it also was the first official report to acknowledge that no one was measuring food safety levels.
This despite the presence of two indices the world over: the Acceptable Dietary Intake (ADI) and the Minimum Residue Level (MRL) for all pesticides.
MRL for a pesticide is the minimum safe level of that pesticide’s residue that can be present in a kilogram of a particular crop.
ADI for a pesticide is the maximum amount of that pesticide residue that can be taken daily for a particular body weight without adverse health effects.
MRL and ADI, therefore, are two guideposts used to determine how safe the food is. Global regulators like WHO have developed regional diet charts to measure exposure to pesticide. But they say that each country needs to calculate their own exposure levels keeping in mind different dietary habits.
But in India, of the 183 pesticides registered, MRLs for only 70 of them have been fixed—and even these aren’t monitored. Result: there is no way to ascertain how the pesticide level in an average lunch or dinner matches with the ADI. In one study conducted as part of that ICMR report, 2,205 samples of milk collected from 12 states contained residues of DDT complex and HCH (Lindane).So high was the level of lindane in milk that the pesticide residue consumed only from milk constituted 80 per cent of its ADI when milk formed just 10 per cent of the diet. Instead of probing further, the government withdrew the report and came out with a much watered down version in 1997.
‘‘For the last 22 years, we have been telling the government that it is important to calculate risks from pesticide residues but nothing has been done,’’ said R L Kalra from the Punjab Agriculture University, who was one of the authors of the 1993 ICMR report. ‘‘Instead there is confusion, hysteria and apathy.’’
‘‘There is no policy for fixing MRLs and then doing toxicological tests to see that our pesticide exposure is within limits,’’ said a scientist working at ICMR.
Following the controversy over pesticides in bottled water and then in colas, Delhi-based NGO Srishti filed a PIL in the Supreme Court this year urging the Government to fix MRLs for pesticides. And set up an expert body for prevention, control and monitoring in the area of toxics and their effect on environment and human health.
Incidentally, after the ICMR report, there have been a string of other official studies ringing the same alarm bells all unheard by the ministries of Agriculture and Health who will now have to depose before the JPC. • 1996: ICMR found 51% of food commodities contaminated with pesticide out of which 20% had limits of pesticide exceeding their MRLs. • 1999: Study conducted by the Agriculture Ministry’s All India Coordinated Research Project showed 60% food commodities contaminated with pesticide, out of which 14% were above MRL. • 1999: AICRP showed vegetables and fruit samples from 16 states to be 100% contaminated. • 2000: Study conducted by CERC Ahmedabad found that most of wheat flour brands were contaminated with pesticides, some of which are banned in India. • 2000: Study conducted by ICMR and AICRP showed that maximum residue limit showed far above world average and also that tolerance/residue limits has never been strictly adhered to by the central government. • 2001: Study reported in ICMR bulletin showed DDT and HCH residues in human milk, human blood and fat.