1.43 lakh killed by lead poisoning in just one year! If there is anything that needs hot pursuit it is this deadly metal in our system, especially now that even big MNCs peddling food products in India have started beeping on the contamination map. With the Indian packaged food industry pegged at a $ 50 billion market share in 2017, DEEBASHREE MOHANTY wonders whether policy has the political will to take a way out of this annihilating rigmarole
In India, there is an infant death every 24 hours from acute diarrhea, brain damage and inflamed liver. Among adults, cases of food poisoning and acute stomach ailments have increased by over 67 per cent in the last decade. Most doctors believe that the lead in our system is the reason behind 80 per cent of emergency cases.
“look at the mental disabilities and brain diseases around us. They’ve grown manifold. We deal with at least five patients a week suffering from one or more anomalies. Food contamination is slow poison killing us slowly, but surely,” warns Dr SP Mukherjee, former AIIMS gastro-enterologist. A WHO study says, lead exposure is estimated to account for 1,43,000 deaths a year with the highest number of casualties being in developing regions like India. A pan-India analysis by Metropolis Healthcare of 733 blood samples collected over the last year reveals that 23.47 per cent of the total samples tested positive with lead poisoning.
Observing that unsafe food kills an estimated 7 lakh children in South-east Asia alone, he said: “Even if the food is free of bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals, other contaminants, additives and adulterants can cause over 200 diseases ranging from diarrhea to cancer.” It is not easy to detect lead poisoning because even when people appear hale and hearty, their bodies may contain very high levels of lead. A WHO finding revealed that human exposure to lead through water increases due to degraded plumbing in old buildings. It can disrupt nervous and reproductive systems and kidneys and can cause high blood pressure and anaemia.
“If you are over exposed to lead, it damages the brain and the central nervous system and can lead to coma, convulsions and death,” Mukherjee says. Mukherjee has written several papers on lead contamination and its impact on the human brain. His study Development Maladies was honoured at the California Institute of Medicine in July, 2011. “It was a two-year-long research which concluded with astute findings. The paper dealt with how over exposure of lead through water and food materials are leading to cancer and stroke. The problem is that it is an invisible killer eating into our system,” he says.
lead is extremely harmful to developing foetuses, pregnant mothers and children, with high lead levels causing learning disabilities, behavioural problems and mental retardation. “In children, it brings about lead-induced encephalopathy. It also brings about other cognitive changes,” says Dr Thuppil Venkatesh, professor emeritus at St John’s Medical College, Bangalore. He has been researching lead contamination and related food safety issues for 30 years. He is also the national chair of Indian Society for lead Awareness and Research.
Venkatesh believes that the Nestle controversy is just the tip of the iceberg. High quantities of lead have been found by researchers in chocolates, milk, fish and drinking water. “I am not talking about one particular brand here. My concern is that no food corporation in India is acting responsibly. They are aware of the huge quantities of lead in our water and other pollutants too. So, why don’t they have periodic testing of products before pushing them onto our shelvesIJ Nestle has spent mega bucks in advertising but not built accredited laboratories to test their products to ensure they are free (within permissible limits) of heavy metals. It is a known fact that our body is unable to metabolise or excrete heavy metals like mercury, lead and arsenic bioaccumulate once they enter our body. That is just the beginning of a big health ailment,” he warns.
Another scientist who has a different take on the Maggi ban fiasco, feels if we are not sure about our drinking water, we can’t be sure of anything that we are consuming. “Why would we need ROs and Aqua Guards if everything was hunky doryIJ My parents or the generation before them used to drink tap water. They were fit as fiddle. See for yourself the contamination level today and be shocked. leave alone humans, our drinking water is poison for all manner of fauna,” Raghunandan from the Delhi Science Forum, says.
The point he is trying to make is simple — if instant food items like Maggi are being manufactured locally, shouldn’t the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) investigate the factories to find out where the lead is coming from in the first placeIJ “It is definitely not there in the wheat. So, where is this lead coming from,” he queries.
According to him we are knocking at the wrong door this time. “The answer is not in testing similar products like pasta and chips. That doesn’t solve our purpose. In my opinion, unsafe quantities of lead can only enter our packaged food items due to two reasons — PVC pipes (degraded plumbing which is still used pan India) used for water in the factories or through paint. I would recommend that we check the PVC pipes in all food manufacturing factories, especially in North Indian states. We will find our culprit there,” he says.
If Raghunandan’s contention is correct, it opens up a Pandora’s box! This is also the reason, he insists, Maggi products in Kerala and Goa tested negative for lead. So, while Nestle goes into a defensive mode withdrawing its product from Indian shelves, scientists feel that Indian food vigilantes should not sit with their feet up. This is just the beginning of a rather huge deal. The consensus on whether our State Governments are doing the needful is divided. While Venkatesh argues that we have the best set of standards and rules governing food safety and that our big population means lax food inspection, Raghunandan feels we could do with tighter food regulation standards.
“We have been going as per the developing countries’ standards for our food safety. It is time for us to step that up and make it more rigid. Now, is a good time,” he asserts, pointing out that food safety is a State subject and should remain so in our political scheme of things. “The States are not dealing with food safety properly. The onus lies on the food inspector of a particular State to ensure that the packaged goods conform to prescribed Indian standards. Regular and random checks can do the needful,” Ashin Sanyal, COO of Consumer Voice, a platform for consumer redress against contaminated food, tells you.
Sanyal has been fighting consumer battles against lopsided food safety measures but feels that with lackadaisical administration, food safety is a distant dream. “Coherent laws have always been in place. What we lack is administration and a political will to weed out corporations who flout food safety norms. State subjects, instead of naming and shaming companies which propel contaminated food stuff, settle for a paltry fine (it is considered meagre according to their standards). That gives mega companies a fallback option. They know they can pay their way to get into Indian markets,” he explains. The simplest way out, according to Sanyal, is the social media.
“It may sound too simplistic but that is the only way out. Awareness is really the key,” he tells you. Approaching the consumer court for compensation or penalty is an ordeal in itself. “It is a long drawn process which is not made easy by corrupt people in the system. After filing out a PIl against the company manufacturing the contaminated product, you need to understand that the onus is on you as a consumer to prove that the product was sub-standard beyond doubt. It’s a pretty high standard of proof that you as a consumer need to establish. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep all related food, bills, invoices, records of telephonic conversations (if possible), e-mail exchanges, medical prescriptions if applicable, letters of notice etc.
“let’s say you are filing a complaint against a big brand like Pepsi. Companies like Pepsi will argue that they use state-of-the-art machinery and follow international standards of food safety. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the company is at fault. The judge may rule in favour of the company unless you can show decisively that the company was deficient and negligent,” he points out, stating how the worms found in Cadbury’s in 2003 ended on a happy note.
Cadbury recovered with the help of some good PR work and advertising (they roped in Amitabh Bachchan for their campaigns). Ashutosh Burman from the Consumer Redressal Forum in New Delhi tells you that although the complaints against property rights are addressed in a swift manner, food contamination cases hardly see any success.
“It’s very difficult, almost impossible to prove foul play in packaged foods. We have seen more than 12,000 cases in the past two years that have resulted in absolutely nothing. There are many cases still waiting for their turn. The success rate is abysmal,” he tells you. less than one per cent of the cases get anywhere close to justice. The situation is far worse in loose products. More than 75 per cent of our food consumption comes from loose products. It is mostly the BPl or the lower middle income group which opts for these foods.
“Blame it on the PDS or the mid-day meal system, a majority of our population depends on loose products for consumption. And the worst case of food contamination exists in this category. But people below the poverty line are not aware of their rights or about how food contamination can fell their health. They don’t fight cases against bad products. They just consume whatever you put on their plate, suffer and eventually perish. No one is bothered,” Sanyal says.
lack of Government policies on food and water safety is causing the death of 2.2 million people, including children, every year across the globe. The use of pesticides and fertilisers in the past 50 years has grown nearly 170 times. And lead poisoning is only one of the concerns. Bio-safety standards in India have an abysmal record. The then Health Minister told Parliament in December 2013 that 20 per cent of random samples (13,571 out of 72,000) collected and tested by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India during 2013-14 did not conform to Indian standards. The agency had not disclosed the details of the tests. So there was no knowledge about which kind of adulteration is the most common one.
With the Indian packaged food industry being pegged at $30 billion (heading towards a whopping $50 billion dollar market share by 2017), is it possible for the Government to make its way out of this rigmaroleIJ “Yes. The laws and standards are all in place. We just need to ensure that the corporations are transparent in dealings. Whenever brands advertise their produce in the news media, they should disclose a batch number. For that batch, they should have a test certificate readily available in the industry. They can do the testing in an in-house laboratory but 10 per cent of what they test must be tested outside in a third-party accredited laboratory. This test certificate should be available on demand, for a nominal fee. The Right to Information Act should be applicable here,” Venkatesh concludes.
Banning Maggi and taking note of food adulteration as an issue by the Government is finally a step in the right direction.