Drive against formalin frenzy

Pages of newspapers are splashed with pictures of vehicles or even bulldozers massacring enormous amount of summer fruits in the capital. Different TV channels also show this act of demolition on the small screen. The reason why fruits are seized from fruit vendors or the whole consignment on a truck is forced to the dumping ground is the presence of formalin in the seized items. Mind it, fruits are not being put to test to determine if they are treated with other chemicals such as calcium carbide. Till now two extensive tests on samples of different summer fruits have revealed a dreadful picture. An overwhelmingly high percentage of fruit samples was found to be formalin-treated with cent per cent samples of black berry failing to pass the test.
Now the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has set up check posts at different entry points of the capital. A newspaper carried a news item showing Sadarghat wholesale depot, where cargo-loads of fruits land before they are dispatched to different markets of the capital, almost empty on the first day of entry point checking. Why this is so is understandable. Now that formalin-treated fruits have started getting perished under the wheels of vehicle, should it compel producers and traders of fruits to stop applying the chemical used for preserving human organs or even the entire body for lengthening shelf life of fruits, fish or vegetables?
It is too early to say how people involved with growing and sale of mangoes, litchis, black berries and other luscious fruits of summer will respond to the anti-formalin drive launched by the police. But the media focus on this issue is expected to set the alarm bell ringing among the rapacious traders. If all consignments of fruits entering the capital are found so poisonous and duly destroyed, traders doing business here will have no other option but to give up the criminal practice. Then the law enforcement people on duty will have to be on their guard and more importantly will be required to remain honest and uncompromising.  
Examples are set for others to either emulate or deter from repeating an unacceptable act. Thus exemplary punishment refers to a representative measure that should be enough to deter others from committing the same or similar foul act or crime. Let fruit traders or vendors realise that slow poisoning people through formalin or other chemical-treated fruits is a grave crime. Most of them simply are not quite aware of the gravity of their offence simply because they fail to appreciate people's right to safe food or their avarice has proved too much for them to resist the mentality of maximising profit at the cost of public health.
However, Dhaka city is not Bangladesh. Traders have alternative destinations in mind, although the capital's is a most lucrative market. When mangoes are treated with calcium carbide at the orchard sites, such checks at the entry point cannot root out the problem altogether. It is the mentality that needs to be changed through convincing arguments. The threat of exposure of the nation to all kinds of diseases due to chemical treatment of foods including fruits can be a potent weapon for fighting the devious mindset. Arguments in favour of not going for the malpractice are aplenty and definitely stronger. The need is to get the message across in a smart and effective way.