{"id":98268,"date":"2020-01-25T17:53:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-26T00:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=98268"},"modified":"2020-01-25T17:53:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T00:53:54","slug":"is-sri-lanka-the-country-eating-the-most-amounts-of-toxins-and-should-it-ban-palm-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/25\/is-sri-lanka-the-country-eating-the-most-amounts-of-toxins-and-should-it-ban-palm-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Sri Lanka the \u201ccountry eating the most amounts of Toxins\u201d, and should it ban Palm Oil?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Hon. Chamal Rajapaksa\u00a0 had stated\u00a0 on January 14th at Embilipitiya that According to the WHO, Sri Lanka is the country eating the most amount of toxins (\u0dbd\u0ddd\u0d9a \u0dc3\u0dde\u0d9b\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0db0\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dba\u0dda \u0dc0\u0dcf\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dad\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dbd\u0dca \u0d85\u0db1\u0dd4\u0dc0 \u0dbd\u0ddd\u0d9a\u0dba\u0dda \u0dc0\u0dd0\u0da9\u0dd2\u0db8 \u0dc0\u0dc3 \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc3 \u0db6\u0dd4\u0d9a\u0dca\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dd2\u0db1 \u0dbb\u0da7 \u0dad\u0db8\u0dba\u0dd2 \u0dbd\u0d82\u0d9a\u0dcf\u0dc0)! Meanwhile, an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry has called for a\u00a0 ban on Palm Oil (24th January 2020, Island), claiming it to cause cancer. Unfortunately, neither statement is fully justified, but\u00a0 cause unnecessary public fear
\u00a0
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), globally over 20%\u00a0 suffer from chronic hunger. In Africa and Asia,\u00a0 Yemen\u00a0 is at 60% and India records a 38% chronic hunger rate.\u00a0 Sri Lanka, thanks to\u00a0 modern agriculture, hybrid seeds and irrigation from the Senanayake era, does much better though struggling with food insecurity and malnutrition. Nevertheless, the increasing wealth gap caused by free-market economics has created two classes. The rich, enjoying longer lives are\u00a0 health conscious,\u00a0 and want\u00a0 a choice on food.\u00a0 They\u00a0 are\u00a0 obsessed with the purity of their food, while ignoring their obesity-generating life styles. The impoverished fend with any food that keeps them alive, with NO choice.

ARE SRI LANKANS EATING TOXIC FOOD?
The good news is, judging from the reported data, the food available in Sri Lanka even for the impoverished is generally safe to eat, and probably cleaner than from similar South Asian markets. Furthermore, the public must not be fooled by the propaganda of\u00a0 organic\u201d food\u00a0 vendors fighting for a bigger market share and eroding the available inexpensive food supply<\/strong>.

The WHO has not said that Sri Lanka leads the world in eating toxic food. The Hon. Chamal Rajapaksa is not the only one\u00a0 misled into believing that Sri Lanka imports a lot of agrochemicals having huge amounts of arsenic, cadmium and such toxic elements, and that the local food in the market, be it gotukola, spinache, rice, tilaapiya or tea\u00a0 have\u00a0 dangerous\u201d amounts of pesticide residues in them. In previous articles, e.g., Daily News, Nov. 7, 2018, entitled\u00a0 Toxic cocktail of myth and truth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toxic cocktail of myth and truth<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.dailynews.lk\/2018\/11\/07\/features\/167704\/toxic-cocktail-myth-and-truth<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have\npointed out that many \u2013 even scientists and medics \u2013  who cry WOLF\u201d \nhave  mis- applied the toxic thresholds  set out by the WHO and the\nFAO.  
\n
\nWhen a  celebrity figure like Hon. Chamal Rajapaksa, flanked by people\nlike Ven. Omalphe Sobitha states that Sri Lankans lead the world in\neating  toxic food, he makes more impact than doctors and scientists. Mr.\nRajapaksa was addressing farmers,  and decrying their use of \nagrochemicals  held to be poisons\u201d. But no substance is a poison unless\ncertain thresholds are exceeded. Vitamins, in the recommended doses are a\nblessing, but become poisons if you exceed the daily dose.
\n
\nThe controls needed for optimal and minimal use of agrochemicals in Lanka were\ndestroyed since 1977 by the free market. However, the world-bank data on the\nuse of agrochemicals is very clear that Sri Lanka has a significantly LOW \nusage of argochemicals even in spite of the free market.  
\n
\nPoor health is not correlated with high use of agrochemicals but with poverty.\nRich countries can pay for agrochemicals.
\n(Usage in kg\/hectare, source: https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/AG.CON.FERT.ZS<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singapore 30,237(?); Qatar,\n6755;  Hong Kong, 2704;  New Zealand, 1777; \nMalaysia,         1723;  \nIreland, 1,247; Columbia (coffee), 660;   Egypt (has CKDu), 650;\nChina, 503;     Vietnam, 430;   Ecuador,\n354;    Maldives, 315; Bangladesh, 289;    UK,\n253;   Indonesia,     231;   \nIndia (has CKDu), 166; Thailand, 162;
\nSri Lanka (has CKDu in the NCP), 132<\/strong>;<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nPoor countries, unable to afford, use less than 100 kg\/hectare, and have many\nchronic diseases.
\nNicaragua (has a form of CKDu), 62; Bhutan, 13; Ruwanda, 11; Burundi, 5.4; Congo,\n1.8; Gambia, 1.2; Central African Rep., 0.3.
\n
\nSHOULD SRI LANKA BAN PALM OIL?
\nEmeritus Professor of biochemistry, Deepal Mathew writing in the Island on 21st\nJanuary   points out that  Palm oil has become the major edible\noil in Sri Lanka with a market share of 82%. Coconut oil has a market share of\n12%. What applies to processed palm oil applies in some measure to\nhot-processed coconut oil, although Prof. Mathew has not called for a ban on\ncoconut oil.
\n
\nvirgin coconut oil\u201d and imported virgin olive oil\u201d, prepared by\nlow-temperature processing  are  the choice of the rich. Virgin palm\noil is equally safe. What should the vast majority who cannot afford these\ngood oils do\u201d? The good professor has no affordable suggestions.  But he\nwarns that The food industry in Sri Lanka will use cheap refined palm oil to\nmaximize profits. However, this may lead to a severe crisis in the future due\nto the possibility of a sharp increase in cancer patients\u201d.
\n
\nDr. Mathew’s concerns regarding Palm Oil are not based on the usual (valid)\narguments against multinationals destroying tropical forests in South-East Asia\nfor planting Palm. His concerns are based on a scientific opinion  given\nby the European Food safety Authority (EFSA), and  must be taken\nseriously. The EFSA (see doi: 10.2903\/j.efsa.2016.4426) did not say that eating\npalm oil will definitely cause cancer.
\n
\nToxins are formed when palm oil (or other vegetable oil) is produced above 200\nCelsius. European foods using  palm oil  were potato crisps,\nhot-surface-cooked pastries, cookies, short-crusts, margarines, fried\/roasted\nmeats, spreads including chocolates. Are these applicable as such to Lankan\nconsumers? Surely, the vast majority of Sri Lankan  consumers don’t eat\nchocolate spreads, french fries or short-crusts.  Unfortunately, \nreliable data bases for urban and rural Lankan consumers are not available.
\n 
\nThe Europeans established a tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 0.8 micro-grams per\nkg body-weight  per day for MCPD (the toxic agent in  processed palm\noil). So, a 60 kg adult can tolerate 50 micrograms of MCPD. Since processed\npalm oil may have some 500 mg of MCPD\/kg,   the TDI will be exceeded\nif  more than 100 milligram of  palm oil  are consumed daily\nfrom the diet.  A similar threshold may apply to hot-processed coconut\noil.
\n
\nThe 0.8 micrograms\/kg of body weight TDI given in 2016 was already revised\nUPWARDS by almost a factor of 3 in 2017. The FAO\/WHO committee recommends \n4 micro-grams\/kg of body weight, i.e., some 5 times more than the EFSA\nTDI,  showing that these experts  are groping in the dark.
\n   
\n
\nHere a word of caution needed. Scientists have no definite evidence of human\ncancer caused by consuming  high amounts of palm oil. Rats  fed \nwith 2 mg\/kg of rat-body weight (or more) developed chronic toxic effects and\ncancer. So, some 400 times the human TDI were force-fed to small animals to\ndemonstrate toxic effects, never observed in humans. Hence  scientists\nclassified processed palm oil as being only a group-II carcinogen, similar to\npossible (but unproven) danger from cell-phone radiation or glyphosate. Palm\noil is is NOT banned in Europe.
\n<\/strong>
\nThe same authorities classified red meat, ham, sausages,  alcoholic\ndrinks, tobacco, diesel and petrol fumes, emissions from coal-power\nstations  etc.,  as group-I carcinogens (i.e., definitely causing\ncancer). Logically, if one were to ban anything, then group-I carcinogens\nshould be banned  before  group-II substances.
\n
\nNew technologies for processing palm oils will greatly suppressor remove \nthe presence of MCPDs. Malasiya has already promised to ultra-clean export palm\noil within an year, in full compliance of  European standards, noting that\nEurope has a stake in promoting olive oil against palm oils.
\n
\nThe precautionary principle is applied in modern societies to control and\nconstrain\u201d  potentially dangerous agents instead of banning and\nbanishing\u201d.  Pharmaceuticals, gasoline, electricity, X-rays, etc are \nsuch dangerous agents which are controlled and put to good use  by modern\nsocieties.
\n
\n 
\n[Food science B. Sc and post-graduate diploma courses were initiated during the\nauthor’s  tenure (1970s)  as Professor of Chemistry and Vice\nChancellor of Vidyodaya (now SJP) university.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana Hon. Chamal Rajapaksa\u00a0 had stated\u00a0 on January 14th at Embilipitiya that According to the WHO, Sri Lanka is the country eating the most amount of toxins (\u0dbd\u0ddd\u0d9a \u0dc3\u0dde\u0d9b\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0db0\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dba\u0dda \u0dc0\u0dcf\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dad\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dbd\u0dca \u0d85\u0db1\u0dd4\u0dc0 \u0dbd\u0ddd\u0d9a\u0dba\u0dda \u0dc0\u0dd0\u0da9\u0dd2\u0db8 \u0dc0\u0dc3 \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc3 \u0db6\u0dd4\u0d9a\u0dca\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dd2\u0db1 \u0dbb\u0da7 \u0dad\u0db8\u0dba\u0dd2 \u0dbd\u0d82\u0d9a\u0dcf\u0dc0)! Meanwhile, an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry has called for a\u00a0 ban on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}