Food safety wing to step up inspection of vegetables

The inspections are being launched in connection with Onam and will last the whole of August.

The food safety wing of the State Health Department would launch an intensive inspection drive from August 1 to check sale of vegetables, fruits, and adulterated food articles that could cause cancer and other diseases.

Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar told the Assembly on Wednesday that the inspections were being launched in connection with Onam and would last the whole of August. Kerala had as many as 1.5 lakh cancer patients, with 50,000 new cases being reported everyday. As many as 15,940 new cases had been registered at the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), Thiruvananthapuram, alone last year, he said.

Mr. Sivakumar, who was responding to a calling attention motion moved by M.P. Abdussamad Samadani (IUML), said the government has initiated several measures to combat spread of cancer and constituted an expert committee to prepare a State-level cancer registry. The committee, which has Thiruvananthapuram Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) director Paul Sebastian as its convener, has been asked to submit its report in six months.

The other members of the committee are Malabar Cancer Centre (MCC) director B. Satheesan, Dr. V.P. Gangadharan (Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi), Dr. P. Gangadharan (Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi), Dr. Aleyamma Mathew (RCC, Thiruvananthapuram), Dr. Ajayakumar (Government Medical College, Kozhikode) and Dr. Shyam Sundar (Consultant, Directorate of Health Services).