MANGALURU: Accusing the World Health Organization (WHO) of manipulating data to classify arecanut as carcinogenic, the Central Arecanut & Cocoa Marketing & Processing Cooperative Limited (CAMPCO) has sought the intervention of Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda to protect arecanut farmers from what it describes as propaganda by international bodies.
In a letter addressed to Nadda, CAMPCO president A. Kishore Kumar Kodgi expressed concern, stating:
“It is alarming to note that WHO appears to have misrepresented data, deeply unsettling arecanut farmers who have depended on arecanut cultivation for generations. We wish to emphasise that the original research primarily focused on tobacco, and arecanut was later included in the report without appropriate justification. Furthermore, there appears to be manipulation of data, as the original study reportedly involved around 1,000 samples, while the WHO report inexplicably cited over 11,000 samples.”
Referring to an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) study linking arecanut to oral cancer, Kodgi said:
“In the IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Volume 85 (published in 2001), on page 126, Table 53 cites the work of Gupta et al., 1998. In the original paper, the title was 'Prevalence of Tobacco Use Among Subjects With Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSF),' but in the IARC Monographs, the title was altered to 'Survey of Arecanut and Tobacco Use and Oral Submucous Fibrosis, Gujarat, India.' This addition of arecanut without proper basis is questionable.”
Kodgi further pointed out discrepancies in sample sizes:
“In the original table by Gupta et al. (1998), the sample size for arecanut use was 1,786, and the total sample size was 5,018. However, in the monographs, these figures were inflated to 11,786 and 15,018, respectively. Additionally, the original paper grouped mawa, tobacco, and smoking habits under arecanut use. It is important to note that mawa is a mixture of arecanut, tobacco, and slaked lime. Why were mawa, tobacco, and smoking habits included under arecanut use, and how did WHO/IARC overlook such glaring errors? These discrepancies raise serious doubts about the authenticity of the report, causing significant distress among the farming community and leading to erroneous conclusions about arecanut's safety.”
The CAMPCO president alleged a deliberate attempt to discredit arecanut through manipulated research data.
“Arecanut is the lifeline for lakhs of farmers in arecanut-growing regions of the country. Such 'manipulated data' create unwarranted apprehension about the crop, adversely impacting their livelihood. Many people, unaware of such manipulations, tend to believe the data presented by WHO/IARC as factual. We earnestly request your intervention to protect arecanut farmers from such misleading propaganda by international bodies,” the letter concluded.