Need to set standards for bottled drinks underlined

On August 5 last year, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) took India by storm as it released its report on pesticide residues in soft drinks. Bottling companies cried 'Murder', raising doubts about the report on multiple counts, even accusing CSE of hatching a plot to destroy Indian industry, weaken Indian trade, and destroy its competitive edge.

A 15-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was set up on August 22 to look into CSE's credentials and investigate the issue of pesticides in cold drinks. The terms of reference of the JPC on "pesticide residues in and safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juice and other beverages" were:

1. Whether the recent findings of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) regarding pesticide residues in soft drinks are correct or not; and

2. To suggest criteria for evolving suitable safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juice and other beverages where water is the main constituent. This was only the fourth JPC in the history of independent India, and the first one on issues concerning health and safety of consumers in India.

The JPC findings supported CSE's case and the committee recommended some far-reaching changes in food safety norms and their implementation. The findings of the JPC brought into focus issues and concerns in food safety and pesticide contamination that demand urgent understanding, reportage and public debate.

Everyone involved was horrified to notice that almost no regulations existed on this issue of vital importance; and wherever they existed, they were extremely lax. The government had done almost nothing to protect public health, and the industry had made the most of this sorry business.

They studied the norms in practice worldwide and understood how the world defined safety of pesticide usage, and how the rules were implemented, and decided they could do the same in India.

Eventually, Indian government issued a notification revising the standards for pesticide residues in bottled water on July 18, 2003. The notification was issued after receiving reports and recommendations of committees set up to examine the CSE report as well as comments from industry on the proposed standards.

Indian Minister of Consumer Affairs Sharad Yadav informed the Parliament that "taking cognizance of the study conducted by CSE...an emergency meeting of the relevant sectional committees was called ... to discuss the matter and consider amendment in the standards."

The Minister of Science and Technology Murli Manohar Joshi wrote to the prime minister that scientist in his department had studies the CSE report on pesticide residues in bottled water in detail and found "considerable merit" in its findings.

As a result, the new bottled water standards were announced and came into effect January 1, 2004. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notification, February 18, 2003; notified on July 18, 2004, "(i) Pesticide residue considered individually: 0.0001mg/litre (pm); and (ii) Total pesticide residues: 0.0005mg/litre (ppm)." It also notified that a total of 32 pesticides should be screened and analyzed by an accredited laboratory, using internationally established test methods.

On August 4 this year, CSE invited journalists from the Saarc countries to a two-day South Asian Workshop on Food Safety and Pesticide Contamination. The participants included scientists, researchers, politicians, regulators, consumer rights activists and media professionals.

They discussed the issues and concerns in food safety and pesticide contamination and the implications of the JPC's recommendations. They also debated the future course and other related questions.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is an NGO which aims to increase public awareness on science, technology, environment and development. Specializing in sustainable natural resource management, it promotes solutions for environmental threats of 'ecological poverty', land degradation, and growing toxic degradation of uncontrolled industrialization.

Speaking to Dawn, CSE's Sunita Narain said, "CSE was started in 1980 by Anil Agarwal who was an engineer-turned-journalist. He strongly believed there was a need for an institution that could bring the best of journalism, with its timeliness, with its attention to the concerns of today, and interacting with the academia."

She explained, "It seems that journalists do not have time to get into the depth of an issue. Such was not the case even 20 years ago. Today they appear to be are reporting just an event; they do not have the time to understand the process behind it. So, Anil set up CSE as an institution which would do what was required.

"He wanted to start a book called "The State of India's Environment Report". It was merely an idea at that stage and few people understood the issues of environment. The first report came in 1982, and it change the way Indians looked at their environment."

Sunita explained, "Environment is a very delicate issue. The people who cared about the tigers were the people who were ex- shikaris, and had become wildlife lovers.

I mean to say that the perception was that one can care about the environment issues after one becomes rich. But environment is not about a poor country. Anil's book changed this perception tremendously because it argued that the issue of the environment was even more important for a poor country.

In a country like India, you had also to care about your local resources because people literally survive on those resources. Here, survival of the humans was the issue."

About the new law on pesticides in bottled drinks, she said, "It may take from one to two years for the law to be implemented fully. Now it is for CSE to watch if it is being done in its true spirit because the common people do not know much about the policies the government frames."

Media professionals at the two-day workshop on food safety and pesticide contamination shared information on the conditions in their respective countries. They agreed that there was an urgent need for the parliaments' to form joint committees to ponder over this issue of vital importance, and pass appropriate laws to safeguard the health and life of the consumers.

It is pertinent to note that in the Third World countries like Pakistan, the water piped into homes carries lethal disease- causing bacteria and poisonous chemical contaminants while the so-called legislators as well as the local government officials look the other way.