There are probably few examples like this of the population of an entire country being forced to eat foods which are so highly risky for them
Health ruining stuff we are obliged to eat as foods
Enayet Rasul Bhuiyan
Some years ago, a leading daily paper of the country carried a box item in its front page. The contents of the report were full of the worst implications for Bangladeshis in terms of their health. It quoted a specialist doctor at Bangkoks famous Bamrungrad International Hospital as saying that 50 per cent of the patients in his hospital were from Bangladesh.
According to him, Bangladeshis in large number were seen coming for treatment in this hospital and others with liver and kidney diseases and related complications. Many were coming with fertility problems.
The doctors at Bamrungrad established a close link between the rising number of such patients with their consumption of various adulterated foods in Bangladesh. The foods get adulterated from chemicals such as formalin meant for preserving human corpses which is sprayed on fishes for giving a fresh appearance. Calcium carbides are used to artificially ripen fruits. Brick dust is mixed with chilly powder and a poisonous yellow colorant is mixed with turmeric to make it more yellow. Cyanide is added to give adulterated mustard oil extra bite. During Ramadan the ones who fast, many of them unknowingly consume Iftar foods laced with textile dyes and urea. These things are used to add to the shine of Iftar foods.
A longer list of such food adulteration activities can be discussed. But the same is not possible within the confines of this column. Only what needs to ring alarm bells all around is that foreign hospitals are now experiencing a rush of Bangladeshi patients connected to eating health hazarding foods. The current trend of Bangladeshis in such great number going to Thailand for treatment is also worrying the hosts. The ones in management in these hospitals are apprehending that the flow of patients may increase so much even in the near term that they would be hard pressed to deal with them all.
Not only in Thailand, the outflow of Bangladeshi patients in hordes are also being noted in neighbouring India and Singapore and investigative reports may well link this onrush to food related causes. Doctors at Bamrungrad even observed that if conditions do not improve in Bangladesh in relation to catering of healthy foods, then by 2020, the number of imbecile and disabled children will rise alarmingly.
The ones going to foreign hospitals for treatment come from the affluent classes. They can afford treatment and taking care to eat safer foods. But the huge number of the poor in Bangladesh have no choice. They are forced to eat whatever things are sold to them and one shudders to think how shattering in the area of public health such forced consumption is proving to be for the poor in this country. Thus, governments regulatory functions against these offences must be stepped up on emergency basis. And not only the launching of sporadic drives will do. The drives must be sustained over the long term till extensive changes for the better are really witnessed.
A couple of years ago, people of Dhaka were shocked to know that they were eating fishes raised in sewer lagoon in and around the city. A crackdown of sorts followed this detection . But recent media
reports showed that the crackdowns effect did not last and has continued. Fishes from these lagoons are still getting supplied in the citys
markets . Water mixed with human excreta like the waters of the lagoons owned by the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) contain deadly germs from human bodies such as the germs of typhoid, hepatitis B, cholera, syphills, etc.
Fishes reared in such waters are also expected to carry these germs and on their consumption by healthy humans the germs can only create new human victims. So, it should be obvious to all why consumption of such hazardous fishes must be absolutely prevented for all times to come. Hard vigilance over these lagoons has been an absolute must since the detection of this crime. But this need is going unfulfilled and there can be possibly no worse example of governmental inaction in the response to so grave an offence.
Rotten wheat and similarly rotten or heavily adulterated sugar, cooking oil, pulses, powdered milk and other products stockpiled for supply are detected by the actions of law enforcement bodies from time to time. Reading reports on these events and from the confessions of the ones arrested, it become clear that these extremely health hazarding crimes have been going on for a long time driven by the lust for super profits. For example, wheat or powdered milk completely unfit for human consumption are imported at throwaway prices
and then sold with a fat profit margins to food producers and sellers down the line.
Some quantities of good quality wheat is mixed with far large quantities of the rotten ones and crushed and turned into flour. This flour is then used widely in restaurants, hotels and other eateries to make parathas and other food items. The food caterers willfully buy such flour as these are far cheaper compared to the ones that meet health standards. In the same way, substandard milkpowder, cooking oil and other so called edibles are finding their way regularly into the food chain or diets of a great many number in the population.
The greater number in the population are people of modest income and cannot afford to eat at good eating places. Besides, even some of the apparently posh restaurants are not free from catering substandard foods. Thus, public health in Bangladesh remains massively endangered from these very conscienceless or uncaring practices. Foods are things that people cannot do without and having no clue they are being compelled to take on a regular basis as foods which, instead of meeting their nutritional needs, are more likely to create the conditions for fatal health problems.
The above are only some of the health threats to which millions and millions of Bangladesh are getting exposed to every day. A fuller assessment would make one wonder how they are surviving with such regular intakes of poisons in their daily diets. There are probably few examples like this of the population of an entire country being forced to eat foods which are so highly risky for them. It is more than high time for a truly dedicated and long-lasting drive by the government against these evil doings.
The writer is Associate Editor of theindependent. E-mail : [email protected]/[email protected]
