The use of tannery waste in poultry and fish feed poses serious health risks for consumers as hazardous waste has the possibility of directly entering the food chain.
Bangladesh's leather tanneries are notoriously filthy, exposing workers and the surrounding neighbourhood to toxic chemicals. And recent studies show that poultry feed produced from industry scraps may also be putting the health of millions throughout the country at risk.
"The whole nation is under threat as chicken and fish are the most consumed meat and also the cheapest source of animal protein," said Abul Hossain, a chemistry professor at the University of Dhaka, who led recent studies on how chromium, a tannery waste product, is transported into chicken meat. "This is extremely alarming."
According to the Bangladesh government's Department of Environment (DoE), tanneries in Hazaribagh, an industrial neighbourhood in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, emit around 22,000 cubic metres of toxic waste each day including chromium, sulphur, ammonium, and other chemicals.
The tanneries also generate as much as 100 tonnes per day of scraps - trimmed raw hide, flesh and fat - which are processed into feed by neighbourhood recycling plants and used in chicken and fish farms across the country.
Although the maximum recommended daily dose of chromium has not been established, a review by the European Food Safety Authority stated that a 60 kg person could tolerate up to 0.25 milligrams of chromium per day, and noted that carcinogenic chromium "hexavalent" (produced as part of the industrial process) should be kept 'as low as possible' in all foods.
"We have found chromium ranging from 350 to 4,520 micrograms [0.35 to 4.52 milligrams] per kg in different organs of chickens which were fed the tannery-scrap feed for two months," said Mr Hossain.
Cheap poultry is an important part of the diet in food-insecure Bangladesh. It accounts for 75 per cent of the national demand for meat and provides employment opportunities in both the formal and informal livestock sectors. A 2012 report by the International Food Policy Research Institute argued that expanded poultry rearing makes economic sense for Bangladeshi farmers confronted by land shortages.
Poultry feed, produced from tainted industry scraps, is attractive to farmers because of its rich protein content - and it's cheap, although they are aware of the risk of these carcinogenic chemicals entering the food chain.
A 2012 Human Rights Watch report documented appalling health conditions among tannery workers in Hazaribagh related to the chemicals they work with, including itchy, peeling, acid-burned, and rash-covered skin, fingers corroded to stumps, aches, dizziness and nausea and disfigured or amputated limbs.
But outside tannery walls an informal poultry feed business relies on the contaminated by-products of this toxic industry.
Anwar Hossain, who owns a makeshift recycling plant at Hazaribagh, explained: "We buy the raw hide scraps and shaving and buffing dust [chromium- and dye-impregnated waste products] from the tanneries, and soak them with lime before boiling them to a black-coloured paste."
He estimates there are around 60 factories like his that produce up to 30 tonnes of poultry feed per day. The demand for the scraps-made feed is overwhelming because the chickens grow very fast on this, and it is also cheap compared to other supplements available.
The production and distribution of this feed must be stopped. Truck-loads of this feed are being transported to different parts of the country. Clearly, we don't know which chickens are being fed with this.
In 2001, Bangladesh's High Court ruled that the government should compel the tanneries to install adequate means to treat their waste. However, the government has failed to do that. In 2009, the High Court ruled that the government should relocate the tanneries outside Dhaka or close them down - which has also been ignored.
"All the recycling plants are operating illegally as they do not have any licence. So this non-formal sector is difficult to regulate," said Mohammad Alamgir, monitoring and enforcement director at the DoE.
After local media reported on polluted poultry feed in May 2014, the DoE shut down six recycling plants. However, an unknown number of others continue to operate.
There is a murky chain behind this tannery-scrap feed, but this must be stopped.
The writer is a journalist, columnist and conservator, wildlife and environment. [email protected]
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
