The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Don't gag academics

THERE are shades of the infamous Emergency regime of 1975 in the recent decision of the Syndicate of Punjabi University barring the teachers from indulging in open criticism of the university affairs through press statements, etc. The gag order formally imposed by a six-member disciplinary committee of the Syndicate is ultra vires of the law of the land as clearly laid down by the Supreme Court. Teachers are a fountainhead of knowledge, information and opinion-formation. Being an important segment of our democratic polity, they have a legitimate right to express their views freely and fearlessly but without any malice and prejudice. Any attempt to the contrary will be an antithesis of the freedom of expression and intellectual growth which enrich our society. What prompted this extreme step is not clear. Apparently, key persons at the helm of Punjabi University, Patiala, seem to have their roles mixed up. Any extra-academic role would not only vitiate the atmosphere on the campus but also spread unrest in the teaching community. It is clear that the university authorities are not properly advised in overstretching Chapter-II of the statutes of Punjabi University which says that "the cases which are not covered by the existing statutes may be decided in accordance with the rules made by the Punjab government for its officers". Here, the most critical point seems to have been lost by the university authorities. For, university teachers cannot be treated as government employees. Getting financial grants from the state government does not make the teaching community its bonded labour. Academic freedom and free flow of ideas and opinions hold the key to quality work. It is obligatory on the university to ensure that voices of reason, logic and free-thinking are not gagged.

It is indeed disturbing that eminent members of various faculties like Dr Sucha Singh Gill, an economist, and Prof U. C. Singh of the Punjab School of Management, should have received show-cause notices for their expert comments on the state of Punjab. Dr Gill called the sangat darshan a waste. According to Dr Gill, "Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is spending crores of rupees during sangat darshan. This shows how lopsided development could be when tempered with politically motivated vested interests." The Tribune had also criticised the Chief Minister's way of conducting his sangat darshan shows (May 10, 2001). We believe that development is a serious challenge which should not be distorted in vote bank politics. There are established channels for disbursement of development funds. Any zigzag political course used for political purpose can hardly help speed up the process of development. Development funds should not be a matter of manipulation. They must be utilised in areas where they are needed the most.

Dr Gill, in fact, has lived up to his reputation of a free-thinking economist. He has enhanced the prestige of Punjab's teaching community by his honest and frank comments on the functioning of the Punjab government. It is a pity that Vice-Chancellor Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia and his confidants have taken upon themselves the task of defending the Chief Minister's political role. This is not what they are expected to do while heading an institution of higher learning. Nothing can be more shameful than our academic institutions treating themselves as extension counters of government. We hope better sense will prevail and the university authorities would concentrate on the role they are expected to play — the enrichment of the academic and intellectual atmosphere on the campus.

A solution to grain problem

PUNJAB Food Minister Madan Mohan Mittal has announced a plan to ease the state's foodgrain storage problem. He says farmers can be given incentives to store their produce at their own place, just as they used to do before the FCI and other government agencies started foodgrain procurements in the eighties. If a farmer brings his produce one month after the harvest, he can be paid Rs 10 quintal in addition to the minimum support price. According to the minister, the government spends Rs 20 a quintal per month on foodgrain storage. This includes interest on the cost of the purchased stock. Thus, it will save Rs 10 on every quintal stored by farmers. There is another proposal to advance loans to farmers against their grain stocks to help them meet their pressing domestic expenses. The two proposals make some sense, but fall short of providing a lasting solution to the recurring foodgrain storage problem. The state's plight is understandable. It is saddled with 10 million tonnes of old wheat stocks, mostly lying in the open, and has procured more than 105 lakh tonnes of fresh wheat this season. It is doubtful whether farmers would respond positively to the government offer. Small farmers are quite often forced to pledge their produce in advance to arhtiyas for loans at high interest rates. Secondly, most farmers lack means to build modern storage facilities. Grains stored in the open and exposed to rain would acquire more than the acceptable moisture content and attract a lower rate, even if accepted by the procurement agencies. Thirdly, since the foodgrain prices are not expected to rise later in the year and may instead fall due to the glut or cheaper imports, farmers would have no price incentive for holding the stocks. Fourthly, dealing with sharks in government agencies and banks is a tedious job. Taking loans from banks is a cumbersome process fraught with corruption, hence arhtiyas flourish. Finally, farmers may find it hard and uneconomical to handle large volumes of wheat and paddy.

The need, Mr Food Minister, is to take very bold initiatives to solve the problem on a long-term basis. Because of manual handling, costly jute bags, transportation losses and expenses, ancient ways of foodgrain storage and widespread corruption, the production cost of grains goes up. Therefore, Indian wheat or paddy cannot sell at competitive rates in the international market. Its quality too is not up to the mark. Farmers' pressure and political compulsions ensure that procurement agencies also buy foodgrains of lower quality. Times have changed. The need to build modern silos has become obvious. Mechanised bulk handling of foodgrains alone can cut costs. Where should funds for building silos come from? The way out is: get rid of the unwanted stocks, sell them at whatever price is available in the world market and plough back the money into raising silos and building up infrastructure. Short-term losses will result in long-term profits.

Election results are a warning signal
Jayalalitha conundrum and corruption
T. V. Rajeswar

NOW that the din and dust have settled down in the five states where the assembly elections were held, the major political players are busy analysing the results and their significance. More than any other party it is the BJP which suffered a setback and Prime Minister Vajpayee correctly said that it was a warning signal for the party.

By and large the election results were on expected lines and there were no undue surprises except in the actual number of seats forecast but actually secured by the various parties. To begin with West Bengal, the return of the CPM front to power was expected since Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool was thinly spread in North Bengal and other rural areas but none expected the CPM front to secure 199 seats which was almost as much as it had before. Surprisingly the Trinamool Congress secured far less than expected and even in Calcutta the results were not up to the mark. Clearly Mamata has a long way to go before she could move into the Writer’s Building. The BJP was the worst sufferer in West Bengal since it could not secure a single assembly seat.

In Kerala, the ouster of the Left Front with a huge margin was predicted. The only surprise was that the Left Front secured less than 50% of what it held in 1996 and correspondingly the UDF led by the Congress secured almost double the figure it had last time. Vajpayee had expressed the hope, during his election meeting in Kochi, that the lotus would bloom in Kerala this time. But it was not to be, as no BJP candidate succeeded in getting into the Assembly and Kerala’s envious record in this regard continues.

As for Assam, the ruling party AGP was convincingly trounced, with Chief Minister Profulla Kumar Mahanta himself getting defeated. The AGP-BJP alliance which was forged after a lot of hesitation from both sides miserably failed to enthuse the voters which gave them a mere 28 seats while they had 67 in 1996. On the other hand the Congress, which had only 34 seats earlier secured 71 this time and thereby secured a convincing majority in the State Assembly of 126 seats. All the go-slow policy adopted by the Centre in conducting enquiries into the allegations of corruption against the erstwhile Chief Minister Mahanta did not help the AGP. The inability of the State government to deal with the militant and insurgent elements and the not-entirely baseless allegations of collusion between some of the AGP ministers and the ULFA militants were all responsible for the trouncing of the AGP government. It is a tragic end for a band of youngsters who started the All Asom Students Union agitation way back in 1979 with a lot of idealism but eventually ended up with selfish factionalism, gross corruption and utter neglect of the principles for which they fought.

Moving South, the people of Pondicherry taught a lesson to Dr Ramadoss and the formidable Jayalalitha. The AIADMK-PMK alliance forged by Jayalalitha and Ramadoss, well ahead of negotiations with other alliance partners, went to the extent of announcing that after the elections Dr Ramadoss’s nominee from PMK party would become the Chief Minister for the first two and a half years with the AIADMK nominee replacing him in the second half. They did not bother about consulting other coalition partners like the TMC and the Congress even though it was this combination which held power. The consequence was that there were three cornered contests with the DMK and its allies and the Congress-TMC alliance forming the other two corners of the triangle. The election results were a shock to Dr Ramadoss since his party failed to secure even a single seat while the Congress and TMC together secured 13 seats, the largest single alliance there. With the AIADMK with 3 MLAs promising support, a Congress-TMC ministry is taking over there.

Now comes Tamil Nadu. The landslide electoral victory of Jayalalitha’s AIADMK and its alliance surprised everyone. The AIADMK contested 141 seats and secured 132 of them. The alliance itself secured 198 seats out of 233. Jayalalitha apparently expected to get a clear and comfortable majority on her own since she was all along insisting that the AIADMK alliance was only for electoral purpose and the allies would not be included in the ministry.

Having secured a comfortable majority the party did not waste any time in electing her as the one and only leader who should be called upon by the Governor to form the government as Chief Minister. Governor Fatima Biwi had apparently done a lot of home work and she would have no doubt read all the writings and heard the discussions on the subject. Having been a Judge of the Supreme Court she knew the law and the Constitution and she did not consider necessary to consult either the Attorney General or any other legal expert in the matter.

When Jayalalitha met her on May 14 morning with the resolution of her legislature party, the Governor only asked her about her prospects of getting elected to the legislative assembly within six months and on Jayalalitha’s assurance, the swearing in of Jayalalitha as the Chief Minister took place at 6 p.m. on the same day. Chief Minister Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu thereupon drove to Fort St George and issued a couple of orders thereby signifying her taking over the administration of the state.

Even as the swearing-in ceremony was taking place and being shown on some of the TV channels, a well known columnist of a national daily rang me up to ask for my views. I mentioned the dichotomy of strong views, legal and constitutional, both in support and against Jayalalitha being called upon to form the government, notwithstanding her electoral disqualification, both on technical grounds and on the ground of her conviction in two cases, one of them for three year imprisonment. Since then a lot of experts have written, both for and against what happened in Chennai Raj Bhavan on May 14. Former Supreme Court Judge V. Ramaswamy and the former Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan had, among others, eloquently advocated Jayalalitha’s eligibility.

The clincher on this issue, in my view, is what the highly respected former Supreme Court Judge, H R Khanna, wrote in The Hindu on May 22. Khanna wrote that in his view the course adopted by the Governor was correct and it did not suffer from any infirmity and that Fatima Biwi acted as a fair, non-partisan person.

Having said all this, it is yet difficult to reconcile the fact that a person as grossly corrupt as Jayalalitha, convicted in two cases and facing several other cases, becoming the Chief Minister all over again to pursue her agenda which will unfold by and by. Cho Ramaswamy, member, Rajya Sabha and a close friend of Jayalalitha, says that this time around she will give a better administration and a comparatively clean government. She has given evidence of this possible change already in that she met the press on the very first day of the assembly proceedings, something which she did not do during her last regime. Whether she will be able to ensure a corruption-free administration and keep her ministers in line remains to be seen.

To revert to the theme of corruption not being a factor in a politician coming to power or entering Parliament or State Assembly, this is something which the Law Commission, the Supreme Court, the Law Ministry, the Constitution Review Commission and Parliament should go into. Everybody talks about keeping the criminals out of legislative bodies and everyone condemns the nexus between criminals and politicians but in reality, however, nothing has changed and nothing is likely to change so long as we have the present set of constitutional and legal provisions and the judicial system. Rarely does a politician get caught and even more rarely does he get finally convicted. The prosecution itself may take 20 years or more as the various procedural objections would keep the cases continuously bottled up at various judicial levels. Consequently confirmed conviction for a senior politician is a possibility only after the Supreme Court Bench gives its final judgement. It will be a long time before this happens and as John Maynard Keynes said, “In the long run we will all be dead.” Phoolan Devi and other assorted criminals may continue to flourish in Parliament and State Assemblies, and Jayalalitha possibly may rule over Tamil Nadu for long years before she dies of old age.

The writer is a former Governor of Sikkim and West Bengal.

Long-term strategy behind Sino-US power play
S. P. Seth

MOST commentaries on US-China relations miss an important point. Which is that the Bush Administration is planning a long-term strategy when China might become a serious rival to US power. Washington has obviously come to the conclusion that any further expansion of China’s power projection in the Asia-Pacific region will be at its cost. Beijing is steadily working to edge out the USA from the region as an outside power.

China is a giant seeking to establish its “historic” role as the region’s overlord. It is claiming the entire South China Sea and a good chunk of East China Sea as its territorial lake. If successful in enforcing its sovereignty, it will be able to control and regulate all shipping (military as well as trade) through the region. The USA calls it “access denial”, creating a serious threat to military bases and aircraft carriers in the region. To put it in another way, China will be able to declare and enforce maritime blockade through the region and choke economic arteries. For instance, it could cut off Taiwan’s economic lifeline by simply blockading the Taiwan Strait.

It is true that, at present, China doesn’t have the power to enforce its “sovereign” writ. But, over time as it becomes more powerful, some regional countries might consider it wise to informally acknowledge Beijing’s overseeing role. After all, as the saying goes, you cannot survive in a river by antagonising its resident crocodile. Already, China is dangling the prospect of joint development of seabed resources in contested areas. Though it is unwilling to entertain competing sovereignty claims of other regional countries. Indeed, it is making use of some of the regional forums (like the ASEAN Regional Forum, and ASEAN plus three, which includes China, Japan and South Korea), to promote its interests and to play regional favourites.

However, the USA remains an important obstacle to China’s regional ambitions. Even under President Clinton, the Sino-US “strategic partnership” had frayed. But Washington still had hope that “engagement” with China might, over time, create some overlapping convergence. But this is not a view held by the Bush Administration. They are not keen on facilitating China to become its nemesis — to edge out the USA and re-establish its historical domination.

Beijing seeks to portray the USA as an outside power fishing in regional waters to the detriment of Asian countries. But many regional countries do not easily buy such a portrayal. It is true that the USA has an image problem in the region for a number of reasons; the most recent being the abrasive and interventionist role of the International Monetary Fund (believed to be at US behest) after the Asian economic meltdown in 1997 and 1998. Notwithstanding this, its regional presence is still considered by many countries as an important stabilising influence in two important ways.

First, its security alliance with Japan is an important curb on Japanese militarist and nationalist revival. Almost all the regional countries have traumatic memories of wartime Japanese atrocities. They still feel uncomfortable and angry over Japan’s failure to unequivocally accept and deal with its past, rather than seeking to whitewash, embellish or tone down its intensity. But, with USA as senior partner, there is a sense that Japan might never become the monster it once was. Until recently, even Beijing appeared to share this view.

Second: most regional countries would regard US regional presence as a salutary counterpoint to China’s expanding regional ambitions. For instance, China’s sovereignty claims in regard to South China Sea and its many islands (Spratly group among them) are contested by a number of regional countries. But none will be able to stand its ground if the USA were to withdraw from the region. At present, the USA alone is able to check China’s overweening ambition to dominate the region as a revamped Middle Kingdom.

At the same time, no country in the region would like to see the emerging competition between the USA and China to get out of hand. Most would also hate to take sides openly. But the Bush Administration has apparently decided to be more assertive and blunt. A confidential Pentagon strategy review, for instance, has reportedly “cast the Pacific as the most important region for military planners and calls for the development of new long-range arms to counter China’s military power.

According to The New York Times report, the review talks about the need to develop America’s “core competence” in several key areas: long-range missiles, space operations, a navy capable of operating on the high seas (the entire panoply of national and theatre missile defence), and transport planes to move men and material in a crisis. The USA would thus strive to be so dominant in these areas as to “lock out” any competition (from China).

The Bush Administration is thus seeking to devise a long-term strategy based on multiple capabilities to neutralise also any Chinese counter response. And if China were even try to match the USA it will simply be bled white in the process, like the USSR before it.

It doesn’t look like China will tread that path (though it is bound to increase its nuclear arsenal), considering its financial and technological constraints. Besides, it surely has digested the Soviet lesson. But it could pursue a low cost strategy of information/technology counter warfare (to interfere/sabotage US high-tech systems), bolster nuclear and missile proliferation, encourage local insurgency/terrorism/warfare here and there, and build up coalitions of convenience to create wide-ranging confusion and chaos. In other words, it might try to open a number of diversionary fronts not susceptible to high-tech warfare but likely to overstretch America’s political and military reach.

For instance, lately, China has been trying to develop a political network among small South Pacific nations right into Australia’s strategic backyard. It is noteworthy that Australia is the US, most loyal ally in this region. Significantly, China has said that its contribution to the development of Papua New Guinea last year exceeded $A300 million, almost on par with Australia’s annual aid grant of $A320 million. Similarly, President Jiang Zemin’s recent South American tour (at the height of the spy plane crisis) was indicative of China’s low cost options.

Sure, these are not credible alternatives to America’s vast power. But when such diversionary tactics of varied sorts are attempted on a large scale, they can become a serious problem. What it means is that high tech defence doesn’t have all the answers and will not be foolproof.

‘Hrithik Roshan is a bit girly’
Shyam Bhatia

Little would have Indian actor Hrithik Roshan expected that he would be called “girly” while shooting for his latest film “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” in Britain.

But that is exactly what happened. Renowned British-American entertainer Ruby Wax, who is making a television programme on director Karan Johar’s “Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Gham,” told him that the top he was wearing was “a bit girly.”

The American-born comedian is best known for her tongue-in-cheek depictions of popular television and film shows and alternative style interviews. She has now decided to focus her attention on the art of Bollywood.

But the production crew and stars of “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” told IANS how “funny woman” Wax spent a day with them while Johar was filming key song and dance sequences at the Duke of Marlborough’s palatial Blenheim Palace residence near Oxford.

Blenheim Palace, birthplace of the late Sir Winston Churchill, is used as the setting for a famous English college where current Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik, who plays one of Amitabh Bachchan’s two young sons, is enrolled. At Blenheim, Hrithik is introduced to Kajol, one of the two young beauties who crisscross his life and destiny.

“Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” gave Wax an opportunity to show off her sly wit. In the best of Wax tradition, none of the stars was spared her waggish humour. And Hrithik, who walked into her line of fire for wearing a “girly” shirt, immediately walked off the sets.

As he walked off, the crew held its breath and wondered if he would return. But Hrithik was back within a short time, although dressed in a different shirt. “With those biceps, there is no way Hrithik could ever be described as girly,” one of the English security guards said afterwards. “Ruby Wax needs her head examined.”

Hrithik laughed off the incident in the lobby of a London hotel where he has been based for the duration of the filming and said he was not in the least offended by Wax’s teasing. “Why should I be offended,” he said, before sauntering off on a shopping spree in London’s West End with wife Suzanne on his arm. IANS

Now parasites are good for you

Parasites are good for you. British scientists have found that these unwelcome intestinal residents can provide protection against serious immune disorders. The discovery — made by Cambridge researchers in the UK — raises the prospect of making drugs that could block the development of such diseases. The group has already created a parasite extract which could prevent animals from getting diabetes. Now they are working on a similar drug for humans.

Diseases — which include diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis — occur when the body’s own defences attack its organs and tissue. For instance, diabetes is caused when the pancreas’s insulin-secreting cells are destroyed by a person’s defence cells.

Asthma, hay fever and other ailments have all risen just as human worm infestations in the developing world have declined. This has led to hopes of developing similar drugs to limit the onset of allergies, and also triggered one worker — Prof Koichiro Fujita of Tokyo Medical and Dental University — to take the ultimate in hay fever cures.

In a bid to stop his persistent seasonal sneezes, he now takes tapeworm eggs and currently hosts three of these unpleasant boarders. They have, he claims, cleared up his hay fever. Not surprisingly, they have also helped him to lose weight. The Observer

Man burns bottom in a prank

A man who tried to extinguish the “eternal flame” burning under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris by sitting on it has been treated in hospital for burns to his bottom. The Paris daily Liberation said the unnamed prankster struck on Sunday night and was promptly pulled off the illustrious flame, which honours the French who died during World War 1. His injuries were not serious, said the doctors who treated him at the capital’s Bichat hospital.

The flame has been burning since 1921 over a grave containing the unidentified remains of a French soldier killed in the war.

A drunken Mexican soccer fan caused a scandal during the 1998 World Cup by putting the fire out with a glass of unspecified liquid. The previous year an Australian was arrested for using the flame to cook an egg. Reuters

Can being too healthy make you ill?
Anthony Browne

YOU can swallow them, drink them, spray them down your throat, put them on with make up or inject them straight into your veins.

You already eat them in your cereal and you’ll soon have them in your Starbucks coffee. Go into any health food shop — or any pharmacy — and there they are, lining shelf after shelf.

Feeling tired? You can have magnesium pills to help `maintain energy and vitality’. Worried about being brain dead? Try Ginkgo biloba to improve blood flow to the brain and `mental alertness’. Only 20 US dollars for 28 capsules, but you must take it for three months.

Anxious about your nervous system? Retailers will sell you vitamin B12 tablets giving 100,000 per cent of the recommended daily amount (RDA).

Bone metabolism a bit low? Go for boron, which is also used to absorb radiation in the core of nuclear reactors. Not wacky enough? How about extract of green-lipped mussel to help ‘mobility of joints’?

The vitamin and food supplement business has in the last few years catapulted itself from a fringe activity into a multi-million pound industry. Last week it emerged that celebrity endorsements have helped sales enjoy steady growth to over $ 245 million a year in the UK alone. In Europe, the market is worth $ 900m, still way behind the USA where sales have grown 7 per cent in the last four years to $ 5 billion. It was also revealed that the new slimline Geri Halliwell had been losing weight with the aid of vitamin injections.

Injections, the newest way to take supplements, are already popular in America, and the singer’s agent claimed that all the stars are at it. But medical experts warned it could lead to liver or kidney failure.

Around 10 million people in Britain are thought to take the pills and other celebrity devotees include stars Caprice and Liz Hurley. Dr Wendy Doyle of the British Dietetic Association said it is the result of increased awareness: ‘We’ve all become a lot more health conscious in recent years, we’re more aware about exercise and that if we don’t eat a healthy diet we may be deficient in some forms.’

In addition, the industry has grown in marketing might and now supports many of the women’s, consumer and diet magazines with massive advertising spreads pushing their products. In return, the magazines often give unquestioning editorial coverage.

But as the sales and power of the industry have grown, and the range of products expanded, so have controversy and concern in the medical profession. Nutritionists and doctors claim that the public is at best being conned out of large sums of money by extravagant claims. At worst, they could be damaging their health, or making diagnosis of serious conditions impossible. Unlike the rest of Europe, in the UK the industry is unlicensed, unregulated and, they warn, out of control.

No one doubts that supplements can have some benefits in some circumstances. For the past 10 years the UK Government has recommended that anyone planning to get pregnant should take an extra 400 microgrammes of folic acid a day to prevent neural tube defects in their baby. The British Department of Health recommends that pregnant women take 10 microgrammes of vitamin D a day.

Supplements are also used by doctors as forms of medicine. Vitamin B12 is often injected into patients with pernicious anaemia. Niacin (vitamin B3) can be used to treat heart disease or angina.

But the industry also claims that anyone who is stressed, young, old, smokes, drinks too much, is convalescing or is doing lots of exercise — ie everyone — should take supplements.

Nutritionists say that for most people, most of the time, that’s simply not true. ‘If you have a healthy diet — plenty of fruit and vegetables and three meals a day — you don’t need supplements,’ said Doyle. ‘Fish oil has health benefits, but you’re probably better off having a portion of oily fish once a week. And you shouldn’t just rely on vitamins pills and not eat vegetables. There are health-promoting plant compounds that you won’t get in your mineral mix.’

Those who take pills are also the ones most likely to be eating a healthy diet already. ‘It’s been shown in many government surveys that those who think they need them, don’t need them; but those who need it can’t afford it. Those who take it tend to be higher income.’

Regular small doses of vitamins — such as the big brand-name multi-vitamin pills — are thought unlikely to do much harm, but many doctors are alarmed at how often people are encouraged to take far in excess of the RDA. Some, such as the late novelist Barbara Cartland, simply become addicted. She took so many supplement pills a day that, in her own words, she ‘rattled’.

Many alternative health practitioners are telling people to take six to 10 times the RDA. UK retailer Holland & Barrett sells vitamin E pills that contain 2,680 per cent — nearly 30 times — the RDA. B6 pills regularly contain 20 times RDA, and the very popular 1,000mg vitamin C pills 17 times.

Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George’s Hospital in London, said: ‘High doses are not natural — we do not need thousands of milligrams a day. There is no physiological evidence to support taking high doses.’ At best, the excess vitamins will get washed out. Vitamin B complex and vitamin C are water soluble, and your kidney should just flush them out.

Fat soluble vitamins — A, D, E, K — are stored in the liver, and large doses will probably build up. There is growing evidence that excessive doses can result in considerable harm. Too much vitamin A can cause liver failure.

The risk is so high that pregnant women are often warned not to eat liver, a very rich source of it. Studies in the US have reported that too much of the vitamin causes foetal abnormalities.

Vitamin E can reduce clotting, but in large doses can lead to internal bleeding. Vitamin K can stop bleeding, but large doses can cause a potentially fatal thrombosis.

There are even growing fears that vitamin C can cause problems. In large amounts it is thought not to be an anti-oxidant but a pro-oxidant, the opposite of its intended effect.

A study last year suggested that over 500mg a day — half the amount in some tablets — can thicken artery walls. Collins often has to deal with the effects of excessive dosages. She said: ‘I’ve had someone with liver failure from vitamin A poisoning — the product said it would be 100 per cent RDA, but it actually contained 10,000 times that amount. I’ve had a patient who was in the intensive care unit for three days with diarrhoea, which we thought was a symptom of something serious, but it was just because he was taking large amounts of magnesium and vitamin C.’

There are also risks that it could conceal symptoms of something serious. Vitamin C can hide blood in faeces and glucose in urine, so leading to false negatives for tests for diabetes or bowel cancer.

Health professionals’ concern is that the industry is almost totally unregulated. In the UK Food is controlled by the Food Standards Agency, drugs through the Medicines Control Agency, but health supplements fall in-between. In most of Europe, the concern is such that any dosage over twice the RDA has to be bought through a pharmacist who will question why you are taking it. ‘We need that here,’ said Collins.

Nor is there any collection of information on whether people suffer adverse effects. In contrast to licensed drugs, there is no way for doctors to report it. Collins said: ‘The industry claims that no one has died from vitamin supplements, but the truth is we simply don’t know that. We wouldn’t find out.’

By arrangement with The Observer, London

Step into a future home — made of straw
Elizabeth Piper

IMAGINE building a house with straw, using a deodorant made out of wheat or laundering your clothes with washing powder derived from cereals.

In some cases it’s happened and in others the future could be that strange, if researchers and campaigners have their way.

With “natural” becoming the buzzword for cosmetics and skin care, biodegradable becoming a sought-after alternative to environmentally-damaging chemicals and the world searching for new energy resources, researchers have gone back to nature.

They say that wheat, maize, rapeseed and starch from crops could provide a rich resource of materials for a whole range of products, applications and uses that do not hurt the environment, are kind to your skin and help your health.

“It is a massive area. Non-food uses for crops range from specialist materials to pharmaceuticals to bio-energy to bio-gas and so on,” said Ray Marriott, managing director of Botanix and member of a government-industry forum aiming to encourage the development of non-food uses for traditional crops.

“It is a very hard question to answer at the moment (which product area will be most successful), we are too early in our deliberations, but this is what the government-industry forum has been set up to find out — where are the real opportunities for UK agriculture.”

It could be the use of wheat straw in construction materials, starch in skin care, cosmetic products and detergents, the development of plant-derived vaccines or the use of maize as an alternative to fossil fuel.

Some critics argue that Britain has been left behind as other European countries and the United States forge ahead with projects to produce bio-ethanol and bio-diesel and the production of starch for many uses.

But now Britain has started to play catch up.

Back to nature

“The reason they went away from (crops) in the first place was that there were cheaper alternatives and people didn’t realise the environmental or health implications,” said Ian Bartle, chief executive of Alternative Crops Technology Interaction Network (ACTIN).

“(The old resources) are still very cost competitive so it is only very forward looking companies that are making the change. There are quite considerable costs...so to change over to natural, fairly variable, raw material is quite a challenge.”

Companies might have to change their machinery needed to process the raw materials, and crops can be variable — dependent for their growth and quality on the weather, soil types and harvested only once or twice a year, he said.

“So the challenge is to turn a variable product into a uniform material as a feed stock for industry,” Bartle said, adding that in some industries the room for growth for crops over the next 10 years was good.

Surfactants — a substance which reduces surface tension — made from grain starches could be a big hit in the detergent, and skin and hair care industries.

The market already uses 2.3 million tonnes of surfactants, 460,000 of which are from renewable sources, and researchers say that number could double over 10 years.

“The general public is really very keen to move away from chemicals to more natural products. This is an area where there could be significant market pull,” Bartle said.

Farmers, whose crops have declined steadily in value over years, said they would be ready to meet the challenge — but there would have to be some incentive.

Ready for challenge

Richard Butler, chairman of the cereals committee at the National Farmers’ Union, said farmers would welcome new uses for their crops.

“We face the prospects of static or declining markets for our produce, we are producing wheat on a larger area and we are going to achieve bigger yields...The combination of these factors will result in a very depressed market for UK wheat producers,” he told a recent conference run by ACTIN.

“This strategy to identify a novel use for existing crops is of great interest to a wider group of farmers...(But) it is important to remember that whatever end uses scientists come forward with, processors and industrialists must make it attractive to farmers on both a financial and practical basis.”

He said the government should back endeavours by making funds available to make sure farmers do not lose out.

“Many EU member states are far more sympathetic to the alternative, non-food use of agricultural crops offering tax breaks and other incentives to aid production of bio-ethanol and bio-diesel for example,” Butler said.

“It’s time for an industry partnership between processors and producers to respond to the challenge. The UK has a plentiful wheat surplus every year...we have the technology and the ability to store separate varieties unlike much of the EU. Let’s have some action.” Reuters