The cup that kills

The cup that kills

Imagine having a cup of tea in the morning and dropping dead as a result. This is not a figment of the imagination. Two families in East Delhi actually experienced such a tragedy the other day. They lost three of their relatives even as others were left battling for their lives in hospital. The doctors suspect the tea contained strychnine, a vegetable poison, that found its way into the brew when some dry leaves were mixed with the tea leaves. Not surprisingly, the sachets in which the killer tea was packaged did not bear the address of the manufacturer. So long as the adulterated tea is available in the market, fear of more people dying or falling sick will persist. If the negligent manner in which the authorities have responded to such incidents in the past is any indication, arrest and punishment of the adulterators in this case can be ruled out. It is now a few months since the central directorate of health services sounded a nationwide `alert' about `toxic tea' being sold in the market but so far not oneperson has been arrested. At that time, the state governments were told about `Bandoline powder' mixed with cashewnut shell dust and edible soda and sold in the market as tea. But, surprisingly, the `alert' was kept under wraps to avoid giving rise to panic in the market, although seven lakh kilograms had reportedly been sold in Delhi, Karnataka and Bihar, not to mention Andhra Pradesh from where 54,000 kg of `toxic' tea had been seized. Whether the killer stuff is from this lot or not is, at best, a conjecture.

If those entrusted with implementing the Delhi prevention of adulteration rules had taken timely action, the adulterated tea could have been seized and those responsible for it put behind bars. However, it is futile to expect such a timely response from the somnolent authorities. Adulteration of food material has become rampant in the country. The government wakes up only when disasters of the kind that struck Delhi a couple of years ago, when 59 people died of dropsy, caused by the intake of adulterated mustard oil, occur. Despite its deleterious political impact on the government of the day, the guilty persons are still at large. Similarly, `synthetic' milk sold in Lucknow created a public scare at one point of time but nobody has, so far, been punished for manufacturing the noxious substance made out of an assortment of synthetic dyes and chemicals.

At the root of it all is both the greed of the trader and the ignorance of the people about issues concerning their health and well-being. It is now almost impossible to buy any edible material which is not adulterated. Pulses and grain are routinely mixed with sand, vegetables are dipped in green dye to make them appear attractive, spices contain a large percentage of sawdust and worse. The use of chemicals to keep vegetables ``fresh'' is another health hazard. All this contamination is certainly having a disastrous effect on public health, yet people take it stoically in the belief that whatever happens is ``fated'' to occur. The authorities find such an approach extremely convenient, because it lets them off the hook. Between the ignorance of the public and the apathy of the administration, it is the unscrupulous businessmen who emerges the winner.