Consuming safe food is one of the fundamental rights for every citizen of Bangladesh. But people in Dhaka city of around 10 million are daily consuming toxic vegetable under the labels of organic edibles.
According to a study by the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), toxic chemicals are being widely used to enhance production of vegetable.
In Bangladesh, it is a common perception that our food items are poisoned with formalin only. This is only a fraction of the problem. Pesticides are the main culprit. Each year, 50,000 tonnes of pesticides are making their way into air, water and our bodies. In other countries, people are indirectly affected by environmental pollution.
Farmers use very high level of pesticides in vegetable, higher than in rice, said Dr Alam, Entomology Division, the BARI. Chemically polluted runoff from fields is directly poisoning the soil killing micro-organisms and friendly insects and the toxic elements eventually are discharged in water bodies killing fishes and other aquatics destroying fresh water ecosystem.
"The large-scale spraying of chemical pesticides on crops usually causes death to 80 per cent of farmer-friendly insects, which is alarming for the environment," he said.
The presence of toxic substances in food samples is three to 20 times the limits set by the European Union. Forty per cent of the 82 samples contained pesticide that had been banned more than one and a half decades ago for high toxicity. The banned pesticides include DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), Aldrin, Chlordane and Heptachlor that are extremely harmful to humans.
There is widespread evidence in Bangladesh that pesticides are used inappropriately. In one survey of several hundred vegetable farmers, carried out in several remote districts in Bangladesh, 50 per cent of pesticides were classed as 'very hazardous' and 47 per cent of farmers were found to be overusing them. In the same survey, only 4 per cent of farmers reported receiving basic training on safe handling of pesticides, and 87 per cent openly admitted that they took no protective measures when mixing and handling pesticides.
A survey by the World Bank found farmers usually spraying their crops bare-footed (only 1 per cent even wearing sandals); only 2 per cent wore gloves, 3 per cent protective eye-glasses, and 6 per cent home-made cotton masks. Probably as a result of this widespread exposure, 26 per cent reported experiencing multiple health effects, including headaches, eye and skin irritation, vomiting or dizziness.
The frequent use of chemical pesticides on summer vegetables without following the pre-harvest interval rules leads to growing resistance of the pests. Traces of toxic chemicals and pesticides can be found in the produce even four months after these are applied on. Alarmingly, most produce reach the kitchen markets in Dhaka within only three to four days after pesticides applied on them. The deadly elements exist within the vegetables even after these are cooked.
A study by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in September 2010 revealed that use of toxic chemicals in agriculture had increased six times over a decade. As per the data of the Bangladesh Kidney Foundation, some 16 per cent of the country's people suffer from renal diseases because of food adulteration.
Due to taking adulterated food, the number of patients suffering from cancer, kidney and liver complications is increasing day by day. In 2012, the number of cancer patients was 232,456 and it jumped to 476,265 in 2013, according to a leading non-government organisation in the country. Every year 4.5 million people in the country suffer from different diseases due to food adulteration, according to the WHO.
An anti-toxic chemical movement in Bangladesh is being not sufficient for food security. The monitoring is limited to checking toxic chemicals across the country, because they can only find out contaminated formalin, but those contaminated with other toxic chemicals in vegetable remain undetected.
The existing laws to deal with these wider forms of food adulteration are not being enforced properly, when we see (a) the Safe Food Law 2013 not yet being enforced, (b) the highest punishment as per this law being a maximum of five years' jail-term and a fine of Tk5,00,000, (c) the High Court's direction of establishing one Safe Food Court in every district being overlooked, (d) Safe Food Rules 2014, and (e) Bangladesh Safe Food Authority not yet functional.
Agriculture development journalist Shykh Seraj has suggested taking integrated pest management (IPM) methods to every village in the country as an effective way of preventing food adulteration. "If we want to ensure food safety, we have to focus on the root cause of the problem. Contamination of food starts at the production level. So we need to go for chemical-free production methods," he said.
The writer is columnist and activist for conservation of wildlife and environment.
 munna_tareq@yahoo.com