Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The sting of consumerism

From medicine to poison, here’s how honey’s sweet image transformed

A plethora of medicinal uses and properties have been attributed to honey as the centuries have rolled. Many have hailed it as a natural substitute to medicine and the ‘tasty’ way of strengthening one’s immunity. Centuries ago, the Egyptians quite literally adopted its medicinal value by using it to dress wounds and embodying the dead. The Maya people of Central America consider the bee sacred and use its wax for culinary purposes. Even the world wars saw the hives being squeezed to their last drop. But today, a bottle of honey is carrying much more than just honey.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) recently carried out a shocking research, which revealed that many prominent honey brands sold in India, including the likes of Himalaya Forest Honey and Dabur Honey, contain beyond acceptable levels of antibiotics. Samples of 10 Indian brands and two imported brands, namely Nectaflor of Switzerland and Capilano Pure & Natural Honey of Australia, were tested at random with Nectaflor emerging as the most adulterated. The CSE report states that traces of Oxytetracycline, ampicillin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and even erythromycin were present in the samples. These antibiotics inevitably have hazardous repercussions on consumers’ health.

Many physicians like Dr. Bhola bemoan that “these antibiotics, if consumed regularly, could induce resistance to antibiotics.” This would create a superbug, which acclimatizes the body to the medicine, leaving the patient with no other choice but to consume more quantity of the drug. The superbug would further damage immunity, which ironically is honey’s prime medical feature. Children below five years of age, who are used to daily consumption of honey, could even face dire consequences like organ damage.

The adults also leave their kidney, liver and bones exposed.The antibiotics are finding their way into honey as a consequence of a despicable chain of retail bullishness. The beekeepers are forced to supply larger quantities of raw honey, hence forcing them to feed the bees with drugs to expedite the process. The regulatory bodies are fielding unacceptable double-standards to allow the murky and vicious practice to go on. Mr. Arvind Kumar Singh, President and CEO of Little Bee Impex (an export oriented company) states, “The export and domestic market standards are different”.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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