Poisoning the mangoes!
Hyderabad : Mango, perhaps the most sought-after fruit, has arrived by truckloads in season; but a substantial portion of it unfortunately is packed with harmful chemicals as avaricious merchants continue to employ prohibited methods to ripen the fruit quickly for raking in the moolah.
Merchants are using calcium carbide to ripen the king of fruits, though it is known to cause illness to consumers, as it contains dangerous elements like arsine and phosphine. Arsine causes problems to skin and eyes, whereas phosphine damages pulmonary organs.
Calcium carbide is even imported by mango merchants at Gaddi Annaram fruit market to use it widely for quickening the ripening process so that they could move consignments fast to the other parts of the country and to foreign markets. One can see this pernicious practice going on openly at the market as groups of workers break carbide cubes into pieces to make packets for use by merchants.
