Factory sealed off for using tannery waste
A mobile court yesterday sealed off a factory at Hazaribagh in the capital for using toxic tannery waste in poultry and fish feed.
During the drive with Rab, Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasa sentenced Md Abul Kalam, 51, owner of the factory Putul Enterprise, to two years' imprisonment and fined him Tk 2 lakh for using the toxic waste.
Abul Kalam told the court he had been making poultry feed using poisonous tannery waste for the last two years.
He bought meat bones of tannery waste for Tk 10 per kilogram from Keraniganj and sold it to poultry and fish farms in Gazipur and its adjoining areas for Tk 20 to Tk 25 per kg after grinding the bones.
The poultry and fish farmers mix the powder of meat bones with the feed, he said.
But if anyone needs complete poultry or fish feed then he prepares it mixing together maize, meat bones and other ingredients through mixture machine, Kalam said.
The manufacturers first boil the tannery waste, dry it in the sun, grind and then mix with other materials to make the feed for poultry and fish.
The mobile court also fined each of the three staff of the factory -- Abdul Jalil, 20, Md Hasan Sheikh, 21, and Md Faruk Hawladar, 55 -- Tk 50,000, in default of which they would have to serve one month in jail.
The use of tannery waste in poultry and fish feed poses serious health risk for consumers as the waste that contains hazardous chemical chromium has the possibility of directly entering the food chain.
Recently, a Dhaka University study found chromium, ranging from 249 microgram (mg) to 4,561mg per kg, in chicken that consumed feed made with tannery waste. The permissible limit of chromium in human body is 10-60mg.
Experts say consumption of tannery waste through fish and poultry might cause liver and kidney diseases, even cancer.
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