Adulterated milk floods Jammu;JMC ‘restrained’ from sampling milk supplied by Gujjars

 AARYAN SHARMA
JAMMU: Wake up Jammu! If you are giving your children a glass full of milk every morning thinking he/she is going to be benefitted. Think again. He/she may have been drinking adulterated glass of milk and the same may have been harming his/her health than providing him/her necessary nutrients.
Since majority of residents in Jammu get their daily supply of milk from ‘Gujjars’ the chances of adulteration going unchecked are more.
Ironically, Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has been robbed of its authority to take samples of milk from these ‘Gujjars’ long ago.
At present in the absence of any checking of milk samples, poor quality/adulterated milk is being supplied in and around Jammu without facing any penalty by these milkmen.
According to rough estimates, 80 per cent of daily consumption is met by these ‘Gujjars’ from Samba, Kathua, R S Pura, Bisnah, Marh, Akhnoor while only 20 per cent supply is catered to by the local dairies and others involved in dairy business. Even most of the shops selling other milk products including cheese and curd get their daily supplies from these ‘Gujjars’.
Industry watchers claimed in the past when JMC authorities were responsible for checking the milk samples they used to conduct random checking and slapping penalties against defaulters. But for the past several months this has been stopped. It is learnt that palms of the concerned authorities were heavily greased by the section of these milk suppliers to monopolise their grip over the dairy product industry and since then they are minting huge sums of money after shutting the mouths of law enforcing agencies. According to official sources, even though there is a provision to submit samples in the local laboratory for checking the quality of samples seldom this is done by the consumers at their own end.
This allowed the greedy milkmen to play havoc with the health of the consumers. Official sources claimed some of these Gujjars have been accused of using synthetic material and some chemicals to increase the density of the milk.
Senior doctors claimed more and more children have been falling sick, developing allergies due to adulterated milk products and the same is playing havoc with health of the young children and even adults in the habit of daily consumption of milk products.
According to medical health practitioners, “indiscriminate usage of oxytocin plays havoc with the human organs. When oxytocin is injected in cows or buffalos, a small amount of this hormone gets released into the milk. The common cause of hormone imbalance in women and men is milk contaminated with oxytocin. This hormone can have side effect in men, women and growing children. These are; early breast development in girls, male breast (gynecomastia), hormonal imbalance in children, heart diseases including cardiac arrhythmia, increased or decreased blood pressure, premature ventricular contraction, impaired menstrual flow in girls and women, loss of vision, kidney ailments and memory loss. Adulterated milk contains Formalin (Formaldehyde). Formalin is disinfectant and preservative used for persevering dead bodies and biological specimens. To increase shelf life of milk, milkman or dairy farmer may add a few drops of this chemical. The use of this chemical may reduce the expenses of refrigeration and electricity.
The effects of adulterated milk with Formalin can increase the chances of cancer. Skin diseases and eye disease may occur due to formalin. It can also cause corrosion of intestines and may result in ulcers and inflammatory diseases of gastrointestinal tract. The continuous ingestion may result in kidney failure.
Hydrogen peroxide has similar use as formalin. It also increases shelf life of milk and prevents bacterial growth in the milk. The milk adulterated with hydrogen peroxide may increase heart beat and cardiac arrhythmia. It also irritates mucosa of gastrointestinal tract, which may result in stomach and intestinal diseases.