We are drinking poison everyday and not a safe / herbal tea as we are assuming

Here is another article as usual related to unethical practices of Indian companies and a war for a safer tea.

No need to say, tea is favourite drink of every Indian household, you get cutting chai in Mumbai, rajwadi chai, special chai etc on roadside hotels and yes, according to your status and strata you have slim tea, flavoured tea, pure Darjiling tea, Sri Lankan tea, herbal tea, green tea, lemon tea, milk tea, non milk tea and many such variants. When somebody comes at home, we first serve tea. 

Indian tea contains harmful DDT (yes, the same DDT we use to kill mosquitoes, the DDT powder used by municipal corporations and local bodies).

As The Times of India reports

"MUMBAI: A study undertaken by environmental NGO Greenpeace over a year has allegedly found the presence of harmful pesticide residues including toxic dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) in tea sold by leading brands across India"

As per the Greenpeace report, out of 49 samples tested, 34 had  residues of at least one pesticide and 29 (59 per cent) of the samples contained a cocktail of more than 10 different pesticides in them.

Forget about Indian standard, as per the EU standard, 29 (59 per cent) of the samples contained residues of of at least one pesticide above the maximum residue limits .

Impact of presence of such toxic substances in our health

The Greenpeace activist informed Times of India that Use of DDT has been banned in India since 1989. Monocrotophos, termed as hazardous by the WHO was found in 27 samples. Tebufenpyrad, a pesticide not registered in India, and thus illegal was found in one sample. It can be very toxic for the liver.

I am more worried about it as a head of human resources and administration, everyday, I serve around 450 ml of top branded tea to my employees and it makes me more worried. I am still in the shock and unable to decide whether should I stop serving these teas and inform them. 

Further, a website ecowatch makes another very negative revelation.

Overall a total of 34 different pesticides were found including the highly hazardous monocrotophos (the pesticide linked to the Bihar mid-day meal tragedy when 23 school children died from acute poisoning due to misuse of pesticide containers) and neoniconitoidinsecticides such as imidacloprid (associated with reproductive or developmental impacts in animals, as well as affecting bees and other beneficial insects). 

so does this mean that we are consuming a poison everyday?

Above images from greenpeace confirms use of pesticide in our tea plantation.

Who are those brands:

Hindustan Unilever,
 Tata Global Beverages, 
Wagh Bakri, 
Goodricke Tea, 
Twinings, 
Golden Tips,
 Kho-Cha and 
Girnar.


The full report is available on Greenpeance website and can be downloaded from following link
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/Global/india/image/2014/cocktail/download/TroubleBrewing.pdf

My just question is, can these companies do such kind of practices in countries like UK, USA, EU and other developed countries?

Tata, so far I was considering as one of the most ethical companies in India. I cannot imagine may be involved 

Its time to wake up. We must demand #cleanchai. First, we should stop using it and second we should support Uniglobe in this great cause.

You may do it by visiting following link
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/cleanchai/#what-you-can-do

Lets hope for ethical practices from these companies and we should get our clean chai.

Govind

Mumbai

August 30, 2014