Financial Express, 26 July 2012
The government is set to ban or restrict import of formalin into the country due to widespread use of the chemical in food items posing a serous threat to human health.
The Commerce Ministry has initiated the step aiming to either ban the chemical or restrict its use and sought necessary information about it from authorities concerned.
“We have written letters to different agencies including the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), the Controller of Import and Export to know details about essence of the chemical and quantity of import,” Abu Siddik Khondokar, Deputy Secretary, Commerce Ministry told the FE Wednesday.
“Unless it is essential for industrial and medical reasons, we will not allow import and sale of the ‘injurious to human health’ chemical,” Khondokar said.
He said the ministry had already held a meeting with officials concerned and will convene another meeting soon after getting necessary information on it.
Although the government operated mobile courts, fined and jailed people and supplied kits to identify adulteration, the use of formalin continues unabated.
A chemist at the BCSIR said formalin is a colourless and flammable chemical normally used in making particle boards and plywood, industrial fungicides, germicides, disinfectants and mortuaries. It is also used in medical laboratories.
Formalin was prohibited in several countries of the world. In Australia, Japan and countries of Europe, its use is banned in agriculture, the official said who is carrying out a study on it.
The first movement against formalin was in USA in 1987. America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared it as a hazardous subject. Then the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified formalin as a human carcinogenic. In other words, this chemical was identified as a cause for cancer, the official added.
The experts confirmed that this was a cause of cancer. Prof Dr Hossain Uddin Shekhar of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of Dhaka University says, “Formalin can affect the nose, mouth and throat.”
He says, “We have an immune system in our bodies which destroys many diseases, but if a chemical like formalin enters our bodies, it can send out wrong signals. It can lead to cancer, an uncontrolled growth of cells. So formalin can cause cancer, brain cancer and blood cancer.”
Prof Dr Khurshed Jahan, former Director of Dhaka University’s Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, says, “The liver is most likely to be affected by formalin. Liver controls the metabolising system and it can be afflicted with cancer. Formalin can also cause distended abdomens, lack of appetite, vomiting and such other symptoms.”
She says, “Expectant mothers and children are the most vulnerable when it comes to formalin. So unless the adulteration of food with formalin is halted immediately, our next generation will be an unhealthy generation.”
Prof Dr Munir Uddin Ahmed, former Chairman of the Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology Department, Dhaka University, says, “Whatever we eat goes through a chemical process of the metabolising system. It is a natural process. But formalin cannot be metabolised. Thus it can cause harm to human organs.”
Dr Golam Mowlah, PhD, Professor and Director General of Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, Dhaka University said, “The Good Manufacturing Procedure (GMP), which is usually used in manufacturing items, should also be used for food items and should be strictly followed as much as possible.”
“The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) code which deals with maintaining microbial quality control should also be introduced to protect adulteration,” he added.
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