Food safety and toxins

Trans fat

Continuing nightmare in Bhopal: CSE laboratory tests soil, water samples from Union Carbide

Links toxins to production processes of plant.

Bhopal, December 1, 2009: For more than 25 years, the Union Carbide (UCIL) factory has been contaminating the land and water of Bhopal. Latest tests show that groundwater in areas even three km away from the factory contains almost 40 times more pesticides than Indian standards.

Born into Hell

Continuing nightmare in Bhopal: CSE laboratory tests soil, water samples from Union Carbide. Finds high contamination of pesticides and other toxins.
 
 
 
 
 

The new lords of misrule

Last fortnight, we began discussing ‘authorities’, and asked: Is this variant of governance reform working? This time, let’s consider the Food Safety and Standards Authority (fssa). It was created because of a recommendation of the Joint Parliamentary Committee which investigated our report on pesticide content in soft drinks and the lack of standards to regulate contamination in food.

Lab study finds paints in India have unacceptable levels of toxic lead

New Delhi, August 17, 2009: The paints used in Indian homes come with a deadly health cost. Most of the popular brands of paints contain high quantities of lead, a toxin especially dangerous for children -- says a latest study done by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Pesticides and Toxins

Pesticide residues in honey samples from Himachal Pradesh (India)

The Satyam in our oil

Which cooking oil is best for us? Why do I ask? Are we not bombarded with advertising messages telling us there is a healthy oil that is good for the heart? They talk of monounsaturated fatty acids (mufa), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (pufa) and of course, catch-us-words like omega properties. I am sure you, like me, try to understand this scientific jargon and conclude that any oil that has all these elements, must be good. Then we presume if we are being told the product is healthy, somebody must have verified the claim.

The fat of our cooking oil: How government regulations are deliberately

New Delhi, February 3, 2009: How ‘healthy’ is the oil that you are eating? Despite tall claims by companies and manufacturers, the stark truth is that you can never tell.

Who has framed the Food Safety and Standards Bill, the government or the industry?

When Parliament convenes for the monsoon session, the government plans to introduce the Food Safety and Standards Bill, 2005. I am sure the government will hope there is enough mayhem to distract the attention of legislators from the bill, which has been crafted carefully to weaken consumer protection in the face of the power of the growing business of food.

Food we know is a sunshine industry. And industry tells government that the regulatory regime is cumbersome and corrupt. This, it adds, strangles the industry. These arguments are correct.

Where poison flows in the veins…

Chandigarh, June 7, 2005: A study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation, has found very high levels of pesticide residues in human blood samples taken from Punjab villages. The study conducted by the Centre’s Pollution Monitoring Laboratory appears in the fortnightly newsmagazine Down To Earth (June 15, 2005).