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Living dangerously

A book on electronic waste, organic pollutants, food adulterants, and all the assorted toxins that stalk our everyday life could make for tedious reading.

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A book on electronic waste, organic pollutants, food adulterants, and all the assorted toxins that stalk our everyday life could make for tedious reading. But package the information, as this one does, in the form of a story, illustrate it like a graphic novel, add a dash of acerbic wit, and it becomes an absorbing read, writes Radhika Raj.

In his Introduction to the book, author Aniruddha Sen Gupta narrates a telling anecdote. Strong, parched, dark circles would often develop around his friend, Salil Chaturvedi’s eyes.

Sometimes they got so bad that people would start commenting on them, much to his friend’s discomfort. Eventually, a doctor pointed out that it was due to an allergy to tomato ketchup. Only later did he discover that it wasn’t the tomatoes he was allergic to, but the chemicals in the ketchup. This, then, is just one of the incidents that inspired Sen Gupta to write this book.

In this ‘graphic novelistic’ project, Sen Gupta offers a comprehensive overview of the kind of toxin-rich lives we lead, so much so that we fail to notice their presence and believe that this is how it has always been. It is about time we change that, he stresses.

However, a book on toxic electronic waste, persistent organic pollutants, poisonous industrial gases and food adulterants at length, is very likely to be a tedious read for most. But pack them into a story, illustrate it like a graphic novel and it gets as absorbing as any page-turner.

The fictitious Sachdevas are your typical city family: a father with a government job, a mother who is a homemaker, a twenty-something son and a teenage daughter. Like most urbanites, they are exposed to environmental hazards every day. Take the daughter Anamika Sachdeva, for instance. She has always been frail and sick. But her family remains unaware that her old doll Bonnie is responsible for her condition. Bonnie used to be Anamika’s companion as a child, and she would take her everywhere. Often, she would suck on Bonnie’s thumb instead of her own. But Bonnie had a secret: she was made of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a chemical that can lead to kidney damage, cancer and interferes with the reproductive system.

The chapter ends with a note on toxic toys, the chemicals that go into their manufacture, the policies other countries have in place against chemicals in toys, and how India tackles the issue.
Some facts make you shudder: Soft toys, mostly made of PVC, account for 35 per cent of India’s toy market. What’s worse, neither the domestically manufactured nor the imported toys in India are monitored for toxicity by any government agency.  Thankfully, the section that follows, titled “What You Can Do”, suggests solutions.
The illustrations, done by Priya Kuriyan, bring the book to life.

Another refreshing feature of the book is that it is bold enough to tackle real issues and make them simple enough for children to understand. In a chapter on pollution, the book explains how the Tata Nano will impact pollution levels in the city. Madhavi Kulkarni, the fictitious environmental activist, refuses to believe the Tatas’ claim that the Nano numbers are only likely to replace two-wheelers, which are more polluting. “Car registrations in Delhi have jumped by more than 150 per cent in the last decade. Do you realistically believe that once the Nano hits the road, the number of two-wheelers is going to go down? That the Bajaj, TVS and Hero people are just going to sit by and let that happen?” she asks a television journalist.

Another section on “Corporate Social Irresponsibility” cites the instance where Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) was found to have dumped over 300 tonnes of mercury outside its thermometer plant at Kodaikanal in South India, and was “chastised by the community and government itself.” The section ends with the observation, “Even though CSR relates to ethics in business, it is pushed by external pressures rather than from an internalised respect on the part of corporates for people, nature and the environment.”

One has to admit, though, that beyond a point, page after page of environmental doom and gloom could get a bit depressing. It also makes you wary of everything — your home (leaded wall paints account for 91 per cent of the Indian market; the lead in them damages the nervous system), your belongings (cosmetics and toiletries we use are cocktails of carcinogens and hazardous substances), the food (a study by the International POPs Elimination Network found that chicken eggs in India contained high levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls. The effects include cancer, reduced immunity and birth deformity) and of course, ketchup.

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