Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God were Jesus Christ’s famous words, whilst describing the authority and expertise of members in society. Thankfully, the Goa government has banned import of fish laced with formalin.
In Goa, each and every one of us stands confused because we see some self-styled experts in the field of molecular biology and food safety, in league with the Goa’s political bosses controlling the dissemination of news about the safety of adulterated foods. Sadly, the FDA in Goa was made a puppet to dish out results of formalin-laced fish, in a manner that would please the ministers and the powers that be, much against the vital health interest of the Goan public at large.
The mantra of the Goan ministers in power was simple “if you cannot convince the Goan public, you confuse them, and make the people agree to the tomfoolery adopted by those in power”.
But here is the imminent reality. If Goans recall the days after the formalin exposure, officer Iva Fernandes who exposed the adulteration was hounded and threatened with suspension. Shame on us. Such a person richly deserves at least 3 additional increments in her salary, instead of wrongly punishing her for doing her duty.
In biochemistry it is not correct to define toxicity of any compound or element ‘in general terms’. For example, phosphorous in general is a volatile element; but phosphorous as “available phosphorous” (P205) is required as a plant nutrient. Similarly chromium in its tetravalent form is non-toxic but hexavalent chromium is toxic as well as carcinogenic. These examples are many.
Similarly, focusing on formaldehyde, formalin or formic acid. They all are in high concentrations corrosive, pungent and detrimental to life forms of higher animals but ants may tolerate small concentrations of formic acid.
In mammals, formaldehyde is a genotoxic chemical. Let us not confuse and waylay the common man into fooling him into believing that formaldehyde in the environment has permissible limits. The formate or the aldehyde found in the human metabolic pathway is totally different in structure, valency and the affinity of this aldehyde to tissues is due to the “tetra hydro folic acid pathway” of metabolism in mammals or higher forms of life.
This is how amino acids and nucleic acids are formed by the tetra hydro folic acid pathway using aldehydes.
Sadly, Goan ministers have used the Director of FDA to spell out details of formate metabolism as found in human beings and wrongly defended the use and presence of formalin or formaldehyde; which was applied to fish as an anti-bacterial agent, to keep fish from decomposing during their 48 hour journey from Tamil Nadu, Orissa or Andhra Pradesh into Goa.Coming to the question of formalin toxicity, we must realize that formaldehyde is a polar compound like water and has the ability to find its way to the nuclear core of cells. Formaldehyde or formalin reacts and binds tightly with the DNA protein complex machinery and the metabolic synthesis of all cell components goes haywire thereafter. DNA loses its command machinery due to the presence of formalin and it’s binding to the protein-DNA complex and mutagenesis. Sadly, the carbonyl and amine cross bonding is severely disrupted by the presence of formalin. This we all call mutagenesis, and this mutation in the gene, at a molecular level is further translated into the body to give birth to the cancer cells.
In Goa today, we see a scaled up frequency and the rise of oncogenes. So many are affected by pancreatic, liver cancer, leukemia, etc. From skin, bones, lungs and colon, we suffer from a variety of cancers.
Our body has various “signal proteins” designed to initiate and stop a metabolic process. That is called the “contact inhabitation” mechanism. This is how a wound is healed and the repair mechanism stops once the wound is healed. In cancer, it causes a tumor instead! This is because the stop signal of the brain is not respected and cells continue to multiply forming a tumor.
For example, in our body there is a very special P53 signal tumor protein. This protein is produced by the TP53 gene. This protein is extremely essential for the suppression of tumor viruses or inactivating carcinogenesis. Sadly, if this protein synthesis is stopped we would become prone to cancer.
To stop this tragedy we would compulsorily have to avoid adulterated foods and contaminants. For example coal handling is dangerous. Goans are unaware, imported coal at Vasco harbour contains sulphur and hazardous heavy metals as impurities, which are undisclosed to the general public.
It is not fish alone -almost all foods are prone to adulteration. Hence the role of FDA is very important.Our government can by its action control industrial pollution, garbage menace pollution of our rivers by sewage discharges, which all in all, degrade the quality of life of Goans and expose them to diseases.
I sincerely hope my message to Goans is well taken, before the menace of pollution strikes hard. We need to revolt and curb this growing menace of pollution and decay of Goa at the earliest. Health of our society must be our first priority.
