This article is a spin of from Badmash’s blog . If you have not read it, read it (and the comments) before reading further on this here….
Now that I am actually looking at the numbers from CSE lab report, holy cow! I am just glad Indian population doesn’t drink soda like Americans do. Even though ISDMA refute the results, I have no reason to suspect the credibility of CSE. It is in the best interest of both the Indian governing agencies and ISDMA to come up with standards for their products when it comes to safety of the products. I am still sticking to my original statement that all soft drinks should have been banned instead of just the two major players.
“Pesticide residues found in all soft drinks tested. (CSE tested 57 soft drink samples from 25 different manufacturing plants, spread over 12 states – roughly 30 percent plants covered."
“In India, there are no provisions for penalties for unsafe food. Therefore, even if unsafe, because it does not meet standards, cannot be penalized easily".
What India need might be something like FDA here in the States. Food safety should not be up to the politician.
This issue reminds me of MTBE issue we had in the US around 2001’s. The issue was that the gasoline additive MTBE was contaminating ground water. Just because there was evidence of contamination, did EPA ban all gasoline production?. Of course not!. EPA came up with the time line to phase out use of MTBE and replaced it with ethanol (much environmental friendly).
As far as environmental laws in India. THEY SUCK! Is it a surprise that there is DDT in drinking water there?. Western world recognized the harmful nature of DDT and DDE (degraded DDT that not use) in the sixties, banned the chemical in 1972, yet India continue to use, and has not plan to reduce the use. It takes up to 15 years for DDT to break down in soil, even then the by-products are DDE and DDD which are also highly persistent and have similar chemical and physical properties.
When the The Environment Act of 1986 authorized the central government "..to protect and improve environmental quality, control and reduce pollution from all sources (that includes ISDMA), and prohibit or restrict the setting and /or operation of any industrial facility on environmental grounds.
I guess the environment is not a top priority to the people of India.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the shout out Ro!
I guess I didn't get the report, because I thought that they were arguing that sugar was a major contributor to the problem.
Anyway, it's good to see the CSE and folks like Sunita Narain and Vandana Shiva getting the word out. Even if the public views them as a little extreme, it's in their (public) hands to weigh the facts and then make their opinions felt politically.
... too bad that in the minds of most Indians, the environment takes a back seat to immediate economic growth.
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