Health risks to people rising alarmingly

Enayet RasulbrA leading daily newspaper of the country carried a box item in its front page on Tuesday. The contents of the report are full of the worst implications for Bangladeshis in terms of their present and future health. It quoted a specialist doctor at Bangkok's famous Bamrungrad International Hospital as saying that 50 per cent of the patients in his hospital are from Bangladesh. According to him, Bangladeshis in large number are coming for treatment in this hospital and others with liver and kidney diseases and related complications. Many are coming with fertility problems. brThe doctors at Bamrungrad have established a close link between the rising number of such patients with their consumption of various adulterated foods. The foods get adulterated from chemicals such as formalin meant for preserving human corpses which is sprayed on fishes for giving a fresh appearance. Calcium carbides are used to artificially ripen fruits. Brick dust is mixed with chilly powder and a poisonous yellow colorant is mixed with turmeric to make it more yellow. Cyanide is added to give adulterated mustard oil extra bite. Ramadan has started in Bangladesh. But the ones who would be fasting, many of them unknowingly could be consuming Iftar foods during Ramadan laced with textile dyes and urea. These things are used to add to the shine of Iftar foods.br A longer list of such food adulteration activities can be discussed. But the same is not possible within the confines of this column. Only what needs to ring alarm bells all around is that foreign hospitals are now experiencing a heavy rush of Bangladeshi patients connected to eating health hazarding foods. The current trend of Bangladeshis in such great number going to Thailand for treatment is also worrying the hosts. The ones in management in these hospitals are apprehending that the flow of patients may increase so much even in the near term that they would be hard pressed to deal with them all. brNot only in Thailand, the outflow of Bangladeshi patients in hordes are also being noted in neighbouring India and Singapore and investigative reports may well link this onrush to food related causes. Doctors at Bamrungrad even observed that if conditions do not improve in Bangladesh in relation to catering of healthy foods, then by 2020, the number of imbecile and disabled children will rise alarmingly. The ones going to foreign hospitals for treatment come from the affluent classes. They can afford treatment and taking care to eat safer foods. But the huge number of the poor in Bangladesh have no choice. They are forced to eat whatever things are sold to them and one shudders to think how shattering in the area of public health such forced consumption is proving to be for the poor in this country. Thus, government's regulatory functions against these offences must be stepped up on emergency basis. And not only the launching of sporadic drives will do. The drives must be sustained over the long term till extensive changes for the better are really witnessed.brLast year, people of Dhaka were shocked to know that they were eating fishes raised in sewer lagoon in and around the city. A crackdown of sorts followed this detection . But recent media reports showed that the crackdown's effect did not last and has continued. Fishes from these lagoons are still getting supplied in the city's markets . Water mixed with human excreta like the waters of the lagoons owned by the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) contain deadly germs from human bodies such as the germs of typhoid, hepatitis B, cholera, syphills, etc. Fishes reared in such waters are also expected to carry these germs and on their consumption by healthy humans the germs can only find new human victims. So, it should be obvious to all why consumption of such hazardous fishes must be absolutely prevented for all times to come. Hard vigilance over these lagoons has been an absolute must since the detection of this crime. But this need is going unfulfilled and there can be possibly no worse example of governmental inaction in the response to so grave an offence.brRotten wheat and similarly rotten or heavily adulterated sugar, cooking oil, pulses, powdered milk and other products stockpiled for supply were detected by the actions of the joint security forces last year. Reading reports on these events and from the confessions of the ones arrested, it become clear that these extremely health hazarding crimes have been going on for a long time driven by the lust for super profits. For example, wheat or powdered milk completely unfit for human consumption are imported at throwaway prices and then sold with a fat profit margins to food producers and sellers down the line. Some quantities of good quality wheat is mixed with far large quantities of the rotten ones and crushed and turned into flour. This flour is then used widely in restaurants, hotels and other eateries to make parathas and other food items. The food caterers willfully buy such flour as these are far cheaper compared to the ones that meet health standards. In the same way, substandard milkpowder, cooking oil and other so called edibles are finding their way regularly into the food chain or diets of a great number in the population.brThe greater number in the population are people of modest income and cannot afford to eat at good eating places . Besides, even some of the apparently posh restaurants are not free from catering substandard foods. Thus, public health in Bangladesh remains massively endangered from these very conscienceless or uncaring practices. The operation of the security forces have unveiled a crime which is being committed and the targets are the masses of helpless people in the country. Foods are something they cannot do without and having no clue they are being compelled to take on a regular basis as foods which instead of meeting their nutritional needs are more likely to create the conditions for fatal health problems . brThe above are only some of the health threats to which millions and millions of Bangladesh are getting exposed to every day. A fuller assessment would make one wonder how they are surviving with such regular intakes of poisons in their daily diets. There are probably few examples like this of the population of an entire country being forced to eat foods which are so highly risky for them. It is more than high time for a truly dedicated and long-lasting drive by the government against these evil doings.