PUNE: The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) last week issued an "advisory" for dealers and consumers not to sell or accept food wrapped in newspapers, due to health concerns.
This comes two months after a Central advisory regarding the same.
The board said public should refrain from accepting food items packed using newspapers out of health and safety concerns, due to the kind of substances used for printing."When newspapers are printed, dangerous chemicals are used, which can cause serious health concern. Newspapers also contain microorganisms and other additives used to enhance the print, which can cause dangerous health issues if humans consume it with the food wrapped in it," said the advisory , signed by DN Yadav, the chief executive officer of the board.
Health department officials said the push for this advisory came from medical officials of the Southern Command.
We are not going to ban newspaper wrapping of food outright. Instead, we are looking to educate the public and businessmen about the dangers of this practice," says a senior health department official of the PCB.
The push to discourage newspaper wraps for food had come from the Union health ministry as well. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had warned in December that the nation was being "slowly poisoned" due to the rampant use of newspapers to wrap food items. The contamination of food due to substances used in a newspaper could lead to serious ailments like cancer, particularly in old people and children, it said.
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