The Environment Health Bulletin - February, 2013
G V Ramanjaneyulu1 Today, our farming and food is full of toxins and synthetic substances in the name of ‘modern agriculture’ and a thrust to increase yields at any cost. The cumulative and synergistic effects of all these products cannot even be estimated by the producers and users. Hundreds of pesticides have been registered in the country over the years even as the government takes years to ban or restrict a handful of chemicals every decade or so.
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is assessing the impacts of pesticides and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) on bee health. A task force under coordination of Emerging Risks Unit (ERU) of EFSA submitted its inventory on its activities on bees on October 30, 2012.
In a bid to modernize the food safety system in the country, the Canadian Government has adopted new food safety Act. The new Act named ‘The Safe Food for Canadians Act’ came into force from November 26, 2012. It will bring all food safety concerns under one umbrella. Earlier food safety in Canada was being regulated under different Acts like Canada Agricultural Products Act, the Fish Inspection Act, the Meat Inspection Act, and the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act.
The Waste Prevention and Management Regulation, 2012, which came into effect on 18 April 2012 in Bhutan is a comprehensive regulation for the waste minimization and management. It establishes various agencies and monitoring authorities for the effective implementation of this regulation, and is applied to all point sources and/or point of origin of different types of waste and their management.
In order to eliminate problems associated with manual water quality monitoring, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has planned to go for hi-tech solution. CPCB is planning to install ‘Real Time Water Quality Monitoring Network’ across Ganga Basin for testing ten parameters. The Ganga is the largest and the most important river of India, with its watershed covering 10 Indian states, namely Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Food Safety and Standards Regulations came into force in August 2011. It was expected to overhaul the food safety scenario in India. After a year, we wanted to see how much it has delivered. Going through the maximum residue limits (MRLs) of pesticides in the ‘Toxins, Contaminants and Residues’ part of the regulations we found that it was very similar to the earlier version in Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. It prompted us to look for the overall scenario of pesticide regulations from a food safety perspective. What we found was far from satisfactory.
Industrialisation in China and India started almost at the same time. But the rate of industrialisation in China was and is much higher than India because of their former policy ‘grow first, clean later.’ Nevertheless, our neighbours started cleaning up operation in the late twentieth century and have been aggressive in their approach towards environmental cleaning. They strengthened their environmental force, provided legal provisions to punish non-complying industries and devised innovative regulatory instruments.
Ministry of Environment and Forests promulgated E-waste Rules in 2011 which will be put into force from May 1, 2012. In compliance to the Rules Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) has put forward a framework for effective management of e-wastes in the state. Talking about the initiative HS Malviya from Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board said that Board has done inventorisation of e-waste for eight major towns in the state and quantified the generation.
Taking a cue from the Acid Rain Programme of the United States, Ministry of Environment and Forests has initiated a pilot Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to abate air pollution and enhance environmental quality. It would allow the regulator to set a cap on the aggregate level of pollution permitted, and then allow a self regulating system to ensure that pollution does not exceed this cap.