Way back in 2019, the Supreme Court had observed “Only in India we are liberal with health concerns.” The Apex Court observed this while refusing to entertain pre-arrest bail pleas of two Madhya Pradesh-based businessmen who are accused in a food adulteration case.
In this article… from masala to milk, medicines and the air quality… Let's focus on the ground reality following the recent findings.
Hyderabad had ranked first in the country for food adulteration cases, according to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2023. Telangana stood second, closely followed by Andhra Pradesh. In 2022, a total of 291 cases of food adulteration were reported across 19 major cities in India.
CUT TO 2024…
From Indian spices, to certain medicines failing the quality tests and now the “laddugate”… one may wonder what should the consumer do?
As recently as in April 2024, the Indian government had ordered food commissioners to collect samples of spices from all the manufacturing units in the country, sources said, after food regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore red-flagged a cancer-causing ingredient in certain products of two popular Indian spice brands.
The Hong Kong and Singapore food regulators had warned people against using four products from two major spice brands over the alleged presence of ethylene oxide at "levels exceeding the permissible limit". Ethylene oxide has been classified as a 'Group 1 carcinogen' by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Ethylene oxide's health effects
The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies ethylene oxide as a 'Group 1 carcinogen', which means it has "enough evidence to conclude that it can cause cancer in humans".
Short-term exposure to the carcinogen can affect the human central nervous system, and cause depression and irritation of the eyes and mucous membranes but prolonged exposure can irritate the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs, and damage the brain and nervous system, as per the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
However, a month later in May, Delhi police busted manufacturing units in the north eastern part of the city producing spurious spices, including coriander powder and turmeric powder. A whopping 15 tonnes of “fake masala” was seized from at least two factories in the Karawal Nagar area.
The recoveries included rotten leaves and rice, spoiled millets, wood dust, chilli heads, acids and oils used in producing counterfeit products.
The two facilities were “producing adulterated turmeric using non-edible and banned substances such as spoiled leaves, rice, millets, wood dust, chilli heads, acids, and oils," the police said.
In 2020, The Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI) found that 79 per cent of all milk sold in Maharashtra does not comply with FSSAI guidelines. Between January and December 2019, CGSI collected 413 samples – 73 from branded companies and the rest from non-branded sources – from across Maharashtra and tested them, and found only 87 – or 21 per cent – meeting FSSAI standards, a CGSI report said. Among the branded samples only 15 per cent met regulations; among the unbranded, 22 per cent, the report added.
Experiencing body ache or fever and need to pop a paracetamol tablet… wait…!
Samples of around 50 medicines, including some common ones such as paracetamol (used for fever), metformin (first line of treatment for diabetes), and pantoprazole (used for acidity), have been found to be spurious or not of standard quality by the country’s top drug regulator.
These findings were revealed following a routine, periodic exercise by the regulator, in which medicine samples are tested randomly for quality.
Every month, the regulator, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), releases a list of drugs that are found to be “not of standard quality” (NSQ) during checks. Central and state regulators periodically collect samples of various medicines from the market at random and put them through tests.
Drugs that fail quality checks broadly usually fall into three categories
SPURIOUS DRUGS: These are mainly fakes — products that pretend to be popular brands of medicines, which mislead people into buying them. These fakes may or may not contain the active ingredient, and are not manufactured by the company that makes the drug of that brand name.
Take for example, samples of telmisartan (used for the treatment of high BP) and pantoprazole were found to have been not manufactured by the companies whose branding they carried.
POOR QUALITY: Drugs that may contain a faulty description, or may not dissolve in the proper way, or may have a lesser quantity of active ingredient, etc. are considered to be not of standard quality, or NSQ. These medicines may not actively harm the person who consumes them, but the patient may suffer because the drug fails to perform.
Metformin, which is on the recently released list prepared in August, failed the dissolution test, which means that the medicine, once consumed, would not dissolve properly and work in the way it is supposed to.
ADULTERATED DRUGS: These contain contaminants or adulterants that can cause direct harm to the person who consumes them. The entire batches of these drugs are usually recalled by the regulator; the company too, could initiate a recall on its own.
AND FINALLY BREATHLESS
India, the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has found itself among the lowest-ranked countries for air quality, projected emissions, and biodiversity in the 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released on June 5 this year.
In the overall index, India placed 176th out of 180 countries, surpassing only Pakistan, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. This is a modest improvement from the previous EPI, where India was at the very bottom.
In air quality, India ranked 177th, just ahead of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. For projected emissions by 2025, it ranks 172nd. The country's heavy reliance on coal has been a major factor behind its poor performance in several indicators, contributing not only to greenhouse gas emissions but also to alarmingly high levels of air pollution.
(Writer is a Senior Journalist and Former Senior Associate Editor, OHeraldo, Goa)