Aug 28, 2006 10:39 AM
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Since last few months, the country is stormed with the debates over the cola issue – safe or unsafe. It all started long time back, first it was the mineral water & now it’s time for the colas. Is it true that the companies who are making these products are adding the pesticides to their product during manufacturing?. The answer is no, & if you study the facts you will realize how safe you are & how far away you are from consumption of the pesticides.
According to the report published in the newspaper in New york, the basic sources of the pesticides in the cold drink are the raw water & the sugar. These two products are country made.(water used is either from municipal water supply or ground water & sugar from a local sugar factory).
Keep the fact in mind that the kind of pesticides detected in cold drink are the agricultural pesticides & not the one used for domestic purpose.
The use of pesticides in the agricultural industry in India is excessive, which since ages has been ignored by the pollution control board. The pesticides spread over the crops, vegetables & fruits are soluble in water & some part of this pesticide infact reaches upto the core of the fruits & the vegetables, this is the inseperable part of the pesticide which unknowingly is consumed by millions of Indians every day. Some part of the pesticide firmly sticks to the fruits & vegetable surface which can not be removed even after multiple washes & can not be seen w/ the naked eyes(hence you will also get the pesticides in the products like fruit juices & sugar). the remaining part of the pesticide gets mixed with the ground water & river water. How does this happen? During the rainy season the pesticides spread over the trees & crops gets mixed w/ the rain water & it flows alongwith the rain water either into the river or it seeps through the ground & gets mixed with the ground water storage. Neither the municipal water treatment plants nor the private water treatment plants have the technology to separate these pesticides from the water. Every year hundreds of tons of pesticides are manufactured in India & almost entire quantity of it gets mixed with the foodstuff & natural water resources.
Now if you have understood the pollution mechanism you will realise that, whether you stay away from the cola are not you are consuming the same pesticides every day in one way or other. The cola is just an eyeopener which helped to create the public awareness. The cola controversy is just a tip of an iceberg, in reality the pesticides have become inseparable part of Indian Cuisine. You just can’t run away from it.
Let’s go Desi to beat the summer heat, have a glass lemon juice from the roadside juicewaala & you get a sigh of relief !!! But do you know what are you drinking?? You are drinking excessive amount of sacrin which is equally harmful for the human body. Is even a single juicewaala arrested in India for selling this harmful substance!!!
Let’s take examples of the prestigious facilities like Heavy water plants in the country, some of them are directly discharging the untreated radioactive wastewater into the nearby streams(this is done to reduce the cost of heavy water….the desi way of economical design of nuclear facilities.), & the illiterate tribal folks around the plant area are drinking this water since years & dying from cancer & their children are being borne w/ birth defects. This matter was brought to the notice of the people by Doordarshan reporters about 15 years back & the NPC authorities in those days bluntly rejected the claim made by the reporters.
Why go so far, let’s take a bottle of sweet water from the infamous Mithi River & study its chemical & biological report & I would like to see an environmentalist who would say with a confidence that, the fishes from area between the Mahim & Bandra will be free of any pollutants, which you find in the Mithi river water. There are hundreds of such polluting outlet along the coast of Bombay city, the accidental radioactive discharge from BARC should also not be forgotten.
Let’s think about the roof under which we take the shelter on the railway stations, the Asbestos Roof. Long time back it was proved that the asbestos is a harmful substance, the people who work in asbestos factories & those who handle the asbestos product have potential danger of contracting lung cancer. This substance was banned in western countries long time back, but till today there’s no word uttered by any political leader against asbestos industry in the country. There’s a good sentimental reason for it, what will happen to the poor people who are working in this industry,& what will happen to the poor families who are so much depending on this industry. But at what cost the people are compromising!!!
The only responsible bodies for this mess are the Pollution Control Boards, The FDA & The government.
When a pollution control board personnel, just for the sake of few dollars, gives a clean chit to an industry which is fuming out poisonous gases in the air, pumping out the poisonous discharge in the nearby streams, doesn’t even realize the what grave mistake he is making & what kind of the world he is leaving behind for his children & the grandchildren to enjoy.
For the very reason I really fill pity for the FDA personnel, approving the contaminated product, for the sake of few dollars, without even trying to understand, how his approved product will find a way into his own body without his knowledge.
In the western countries the industrial development & the environmental pollution control goes together hand in hand & that’s why they don’t have controversies like cola controversy or mineral water controversy, on the contrary the political system in the developing countries are infested with the corruption & the cola controversies & similar other issues are very common in such regime. Now wonder if such controversy crops up in some other developing country.
The intriguing part of the current controversy is the government intention. Is the government trying to prove that it really cares for the health of the people of the country from the bottom of the heart. The issue is first blown up in the media to such an extent that people got the impression that they will die as soon as they drink cola & a few days after that the government tacitly gives clean chit to the cola companies. Is it so because they are afraid of the backlash….probably yes, there will be chain reaction. If government takes action against the cola companies…. The cola companies will take actions against the local raw material suppliers & will put the claim of billions of dollars for damages & loss of reputation & this will ultimately lead to the collapse of the government. It’s a vicious circle.
