BOTTLED WATER PROBE
BIS URGED
TO KEEP STANDARDS DYNAMIC
The Committee set
up by the ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
to probe into the inadequacies in bottled drinking water has urged
the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to have a pro-active approach
towards keeping the standards dynamic and at par with international
development in related fields. This would ensure that BIS strives
to continuously improve its standards by providing for an in built
alert system, which would flag emerging problems before they assume
"threatening dimensions". The Committee constituted under the
chairpersonship of Smt. Satwant Reddy, Addl. Secretary, Department
of Consumer Affairs to inquire into the alleged inadequacies in
bottled drinking water sold under BIS certification submitted
its report to Shri Sharad Yadav, Minister of Consumer Affairs,
Food and Public Distribution on March 25, 2003.
The report says that
BIS should have a core group of scientists from various fields
with the responsibility of keeping track of recent scientific
and technical developments in critical areas. These scientists
should alert BIS management on the need to update and revise particular
standards even before the review is due. The Committee pointed
out certain shortfalls in the targets set for frequency of surveillance
inspection and testing of samples. It has been observed that in
addition to the existing demands of certification about 750 licences
for packaged drinking water were added for which additional resources
like manpower were not provided to BIS. Constraints of manpower
available for overall certification and enforcement activity of
BIS might have contributed to the shortfall noticed in the surveillance
inspection. BIS should have a complete in house review of its
resources before accepting the responsibility of mandatory certification
of an item of mass consumption like packaged water, the report
observes.
The Committee has
suggested BIS to consider the desirability of linking the frequencies
of testing with production involving development of individual
Scheme of Testing and Inspection (STI) for each manufacturing
unit instead of having a single STI for all licensees. ‘ BIS may
consider setting up product specific committees, as prevailing
in AFNOR (French Standard body), having provision for outside
expert participation at least for certification of mandatory items.
This will enable BIS to involve the mandating body, say PFA or
DGHS or its nominee to advise on the STI, choice of testing laboratories
and overall implementation effectiveness of the scheme’; the report
says.
The Committee also
urged BIS to overhaul its procedures adopted for developing standards
and to increase transparency in its operations. There is also
a need to review permissible limits of contaminants in other food
products under PFA. This may lead to a wider discussion regarding
permissible levels of use of pesticides and fertilisers for agriculture
and horticulture purposes, the report says. The report has pointed
out that the standards of packaged drinking water and natural
mineral water were adequate and the detection limits of pesticides
residues in these two standards favourably compare with pesticides
residues in other food items such as milk, fruits, vegetables
and foodgrains which account for a major portion of daily intake
of human beings.
