The People's Assembly (parliament)'s Health Committee decided yesterday to summon Dr. Suhair Ghad, an expert with the Central Laboratory for Analysis, to hear testimony on the issue of the imported carcinogenic food shipments. MP Ahmed Al-Khulani had revealed that Ghad has documents proving the importation of carcinogenic food. In a quest for notification to the parliament speaker, Al-Khulani said the General Authority of Import and Export Control's Grievances Committee has withdrawn the powers of the Central Laboratory to analyze the pesticide, heavy metals and food of animal origin. The committee has limited such analysis to the Ministry of Health, which announced that it is not qualified for conducting such tests.
For his part, Assistant Minister of Health Nasr Al-Sayyed has denied the importation of any shipments containing dioxin, confirming that a laboratory in the Ministry of Health carries out analyses to discover any contaminated materials. In addition, the analyses carried out by the Ministry of Trade and Industry's General Authority for Standardization and Measurement proved that the shipment has no dioxin, he said. Head of the Health Committee Hamdi Al-Sayyed said this material is one of the most dangerous pollutants, which cause cancer. Therefore, the government should impose strict control on these shipments and harsh penalties on companies and investors whose cargoes contain this material. He sarcastically said: "In the new law on environment, the government wants to reduce the penalties to attract investors. This should not be at the expense of the public health." Mohammad Shafiq, the representative of the General Authority for Import and Export Control, said the imported goods are subject to strict control and there is a committee for examining the importers' grievances in case their shipments delayed during the examination.
On the other hand, MP Ismail Abdel Fattah has uncovered the importation of 24,000 heads of cattle unfit for human consumption. Hamid Samah, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, said the shipment, imported before the Greater Bairam, included 9214 heads of cattle and not 24,000. The shipment had been imported from Uruguay after making sure that it is not infected by the screwworm.
