Muhammad Mustafa :
The single-most alarming social problem in Bangladesh which affects the life of each and every people irrespective of gender, age or economic status is the adulteration or contamination of food. It not only affects the life of young or old, but poses serious threat to the development of growing children even when it is still in the womb of a mother. Child health specialists have disclosed the fact that the number of disabled and autistic children in the country is around 1.5 million, which is of great concern. Access to pure and safe food is a fundamental right of every citizen of the country but unfortunately adulteration of food with toxic chemicals has reached such a level that pure and safe food is not much available in our market. So, knowingly or unknowingly, people have to buy adulterated food with their hard-earned money to eat and to feed their children.
With my shallow knowledge of food adulteration process, I thought earlier that only fruits, vegetables, and sometimes fish were contaminated by the dishonest growers and traders with calcium carbide and formalin for artificial ripening and longer time preservation of these perishable items. But with the help of our media, especially newspapers, we have been reading shocking news stories on food adulteration, which gives us a picture on how our food-grains, vegetables, fruits, fish, meat, milk, bakery products, sweetmeats, ice-cream and soft drink are being adulterated. Recently, it was published in many dailies that poultry, dairy and fish feed are produced from the wastage of tannery factories, which are contaminated with heavy metals like cadmium, chromium, lead etc. These harmful heavy metals are entering into our body through consumption of fish, meat, chicken and egg, which acts on our vital organs causing serious implications.
Few months back, it was disclosed by the Institute of Public Health that 89 percent powdered milk of our market were contaminated in many ways, and liquid milk of many dairy farms were found to be contaminated with toxic Aldrin (an antibiotic). In other cases, liquid milk was found adulterated with formalin, hydrogen per-oxide, boric acid, sodium carbonate, caustic soda, paints and urea.
From this short account of the state of food situation in Bangladesh, it is seen that we are over head and ears in the food adulteration problem. In this grievous situation, still some people make witty remarks that this adulteration problem has at least one positive side: if anyone now wants to commit suicide by eating poison, he may not die, as poison is also adulterated. It may sound ridiculous to many, but the harsh reality is that food adulteration is a silent killer in our society. It adversely affects our vital organs like- kidney, liver, brain, bone marrow, respiratory tract and also causes cancer. According to a recent statistics, more than 3,00,000 people in the country are suffering from cancer and health experts cautioned that the number would be double within the next 10 to 15 years, if the present trend of food adulteration continued. Minor children are now seen to suffer from kidney, liver and heart diseases which shows direct linkage of these diseases with food adulteration.
Indeed, food adulteration problem is a devastation in the public health sector of the country. In this scenario many people show a pessimistic view and say that they do not see any hope for its solution in near future; so they have stopped buying and eating all kinds of fruits, milk etc. to avoid health hazards associated with the consumption of poisonous food. But I am optimist about the eradication of the problem, as the general people, our civil society members, consumers’ right protection groups and the media have raised voice against this social crime and The Government is also Committed to stamping out this problem from the society. The Government has passed a new Safe Food Law 2013 and declared this much-awaited law effective from 1 February 2015. The Safe Food Authority (SFA) has also become functional from that day. Now all the eyes are focused on SFA to see how quickly it is organized, set the standards of safe food and enforce the law to achieve the goal of ensuring pure and safe food for the people.
It may be pertinent to mention here that food adulteration is a social problem and food growers, businessmen, traders and vendors are involved with the food adulteration process. Sometimes, growers have to use chemicals for the protection of their crops from the attack of insects and diseases. In many cases, they cannot choose the right chemicals and determine the right dose due to ignorance. Unscrupulous growers and traders of fruits sometimes use calcium carbide and other toxic chemicals for artificial ripening of fruits. However, but we have many harmless natural or traditional ways of ripening fruits and they should learn about it. Farmers should be communicated and educated, so that they are motivated not to use any chemicals with food items without the prescription of agriculture, livestock or fisheries officers.
On the other hand, secondary food producers, businessmen and traders who are involved with food adulteration should be educated from the ethical and moral points of views and persuaded not to adulterate food. For accomplishing all these communication activities, seminars, workshops, public meetings, etc. may be arranged in the cities, districts, upazilas and union levels by involving the stakeholders, social workers, doctors, agriculture extension officers etc. Articles and features on the implication of food adulteration on public health should be published frequently in the newspapers for creating public awareness and public participation in the process. Last but not the least, social advertisements and jingles may be prepared on food adulteration problem and broadcast through radio and television channels with the help of national and international donor agencies.
For planning, organizing, leading and implementing all the tedious communication and motivation activities, the SFA should set up a separate Communication Wing, or the suggested activities may be accommodated under a Director of SFA. Of course, communication program is not an alternative to the enforcement of Safe Food Law; but alongside enforcement of law, communication and motivation campaign can play a vital role in early and permanent solution of the food adulteration problem.
-Pid Feature
