Arsenic contamination in food trade must be monitored: Experts

While mangoes and lychees from Bihar flood domestic markets and some of it especially the Shahi Lychee are lined up for exports arsenic contamination through food trade still remains a lesser discussed issue According to experts northern and eastern states of India are at higher risks of such concerns due to regular trade of arsenicrisk fruitsThis season a private carrier carried 100 tonnes of lychee from Darbhanga in Bihar to various parts of the country which is about four times the quantity carried as compared to the last year While drinking water is known to create significant health risk in arsenic hazard areas the role of exposure to arsenic through food intake is less well understood including the impact of food tradeBut this is not a problem restricted to India and in fact a study has highlighted the need to better understand the relative risk of arsenic exposure through food intake considering the influence of growing trade and increased groundwater reliance for crop production across the globeLong term ingestion of arsenic is reported to lead to several adverse human health effects including cancer skin lesions developmental effects cardiovascular disease neurotoxicity and diabetes There is clear evidence that irrigation with groundwater contaminated with geogenic arsenic causes arsenic to accumulate in soil and subsequently in crops through the watersoilplant uptake pathway a study Human arsenic exposure risk via crop consumption and global trade from groundwaterirrigated areas saidThe researchers used the best available datasets on crop production irrigation groundwater arsenic hazard and international crop trade flows to estimate that globally 172 per cent of irrigated harvested area or 452 million hectares of 42 main crops are grown in arsenic hazard areas contributing 197 per cent of total irrigated crop production or 418 million metric tons MMT per year of these crops by massTwothirds of this area is dedicated to the major staple crops of rice wheat and maize RWM and produces 158 MMT per year of RWM which is 80 per cent of the total RWM production and 18 per cent of irrigated production More than 25 per cent of RWM consumed in the South Asian countries of India Pakistan and Bangladesh where both arsenic hazard and degree of groundwater irrigation are high originate from arsenic hazard areasa the research published in IOPScience Journal had pointed outTrade plays a critical role in redistributing risk with the greatest exposure risk borne by countries with a high dependence on food imports particularly in the middleeast and small island nations for which all arsenic risk in crops is imported it said The intensifying climate variability and population growth may increase reliance on groundwater irrigation including in arsenic hazard areas and that the results show that RWM harvested area could increase by 541 million hectares 179 per cent increase over current risk area predominantly in South and Southeast AsiaIndias eastern states have a lot of arsenic problems especially West Bengal Bihar eastern Uttar Pradesh etc while the northwestern plains that see major exports comprising Punjab Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh witness comparatively lesser problem of arsenic said Soumya Dutta an activist with Beyond Copenhagen a think tank who has also kept track of WTO deals especially with water and agricultureIn eastern India there are certain fruits such as mangoes and Lychee litchi that are exported Dutta said and added These need to be tested for arsenic contamination lest the enduser even if in the domestic market is kept in the dark However Piyush Mohapatra senior programme coordinator with Toxic Links a research organization tried to dissuade the fears We have robust regulations as promulgated by the Food Safety and Standards Association of India FSSAI It includes restrictions about arsenic levels in wide ranging food items So anyone importing or exporting any food items will need to follow this regulationBut whether or not it is implemented that needs to be investigated Mohapatra said If not being done there should be periodic monitoring and it should be widely publicised for public consumptionAlso ReadDevgad beyond mangoesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever