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In 2001, the government brought in the Clinical Thermometers (Quality Control) Order, under which thermometers that have not been certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards cannot enter the market at all. Four years later, state enforcement agencies are not even aware that such an order exists. At a training programme organised by the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs in Delhi last week, I happened to meet enforcement officials from different parts of the country. When asked enforcement of the law pertaining to clinical thermometers, they said they were only destroying thermometers calibrated in Fahrenheit, as the law requires that they be calibrated in the metric system- Celsius. They did not have the necessary infrastructure to test the thermometers and stamp them as required under the Weights and Measures Act. They were unaware of an order that enabled them to take action against those selling without the mandatory ISI mark. Being an instrument to measure body temperature, accuracy is a crucial element of a clinical thermometer. Yet, accurate thermometers have eluded consumers for years. It was way back in 1988 that the Union Government first notified quality specifications for clinical thermometers under the Standards of Weights and Measures (General) Rules. In 2000, the Ahmedabad-based consumer group, Consumer Education and Research Centre, tested 17 brands of thermometers sold in the market and found all of them failing in the accuracy test. The government incorporated the BIS standards in the Weights and Measures rules and also brought thermometers under mandatory ISI certification. The Clinical Thermometers (Quality Control) Order 2001, issued under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act thus makes it mandatory for all manufacturers to get the ISI quality seal from the BIS. As per the notification issued in 1988, all thermometers had to be graduated in Celsius. The manufacturers had opposed this and had got a stay against its implementation on the ground that consumers were used to only Fahrenheit thermometers and would therefore not buy those graduated in Celsius. This stay was vacated in 2001 and the court had directed the government to educate consumers so that they get used to Celsius. Obviously this has not happened and therefore the manufacturers this time demanded that the government allow thermometers to be marked in both Celsius and Fahreinheit. The department of legal metrology , Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs has introduced in the Rajya Sabha, an amendment to the Weights and Measures Rules to facilitate graduation of thermometers in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Standards has given its license to 10 manufacturers to manufacturer what is called "solid stem" type clinical thermometer and to four manufacturers for ‘enclosed scale’ type. A manufacturer from China has also obtained the license. Hopefully at least now, consumers will be able to get quality thermometers whose accuracy has been authenticated by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Whenever you buy a clinical thermometer, ensure it carries the ISI mark and get a cash receipt specifying that. It should respond to body temperature within eight seconds and once the mercury column moves up, it should stay there till you have noted down the reading. You can get the list
of manufacturers who have got the BIS license from the BIS website www.bis.org. |
