NEW DELHI:

How fresh and healthy are the vegetables that you consume daily? Not much, according to the Union health ministry. 

In a bid to make them look garden fresh and ensure that they grow faster to reach markets, farmers are using chemicals at random that threaten to cause serious health hazards to consumers. 

Expressing concern, minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi has said, "Eating vegetables -- a must for good health -- may pose serious threat to health, causing nervous breakdowns, sterility and various neurotic complications because of their chemical content." 

In a letter to Union health secretary K Sujatha Rao, Trivedi has called for immediate action against farmers involved in such unscrupulous acts. 

The letter outlines that the health benefits of consuming green vegetables as a staple diet finds "a sharp contradiction in the present day context". Farmers are blatantly using hormone shots to help vegetables at a faster rate. "These hormones may cause irreparable damage to our health, if consumed over a period of time," Trivedi wrote. 

Oxytocin is the most commonly-used hormone, which was earlier primarily prescribed for pregnant women. 

However, the Schedule H drug has been banned since then. 

"The hormone can be used only on animals, leave alone vegetables. The even more shocking element is that the public/authorities may also be aware of this Oxytocin. In local parlance, it has got many names starting from cocin and ‘paani to dawai', and is available at almost all the general stores," the letter said. 

Oxytocin is a mammalian hormone, which also acts as a neurotransmitter in brain. The hormone is used clinically to help begin or to continue labour, to control bleeding after delivery and to stimulate the secretion of breast milk. 

"Researchers have proved that the indiscriminate use of Oxytocin injections by farmers has been causing health hazards. Oxytocin is being used by fruit and vegetable growers, who administer it to the plants and climbers which grow faster and get ready for sale," warned the letter. 

The injection is mainly being administered to vegetables like pumpkin, watermelon, brinjal, gourd and cucumber. 

Trivedi also pointed to the rampant use of chemicals like copper sulphates for artificially colouring both fruits and vegetables. The minister hoped that the adverse effects of these toxins are scrutinised and their wanton usuage monitored and looked into immediately. 

Milch cows are also administered Oxytocin to augment production of milk. 

Calcium carbide is used in fruits for ripening, but can harm eyes and lungs, besides causing severe irritating and burning sensation of skin. Also, it may lead to irritation in mouth and throat, and if inhaled can cause both coughing and wheezing.