subject: Factory Waste Adds To Toxic Levels Of Vegetables [print this page] In the U.SIn the U.S. we are lucky to have environmental and safety laws and regulations that help to protect us, at least somewhat, from contamination of our food supply. While these laws and regulations are far from perfect they tend to be much better and more restrictive than what is found in other countries around the world. One of the worst countries in terms of lax environmental protections is India. The hot topic of late has been e-waste that is being openly dumped and burned in landfills around Indian cities and the toxic chemicals from this e-waste that is poisoning local residents. A more serious problem that is often over looked is the direct poisoning of the food supply in India.
Fruits and vegetables that are grown in and around cities are being contaminated with a wide variety of toxins including Cadmium, Lead and Chromium. The fields where the food is grown are irrigated with waste water from local factories. This waste water is loaded with toxins that find their way directly into the foods. The fruits and vegetables from these farms go directly to the city markets and the toxins that they contain are slowly poisoning the population. "Industrial toxin induced hepatitis and acute liver diseases are known to be caused by consumption of vegetables irrigated from waste water. Many more adverse effects might still be unknown," said Dr Ramesh Roop Rai, gastroenterologist and a former head of department at SMS Medical College. Also a scientist in Delhi supposedly died from drinking contaminated vegetable juice.
Obviously stricter environmental standards are needed to help insure that the food supply is safe and free from toxins in India. But with a scarcity of clean water and few systems in place to clean the irrigation water this problem is likely to persist and even get worse. Even though in the U.S. we have stronger environmental protections toxins are still dumped directly into our water ways and their way into our food supply as well. This is a a world wide health problem since foods are shipped from one country to another.
