CAMPCO urges Centre to take action on areca nut 'carcinogen classification'

Mangaluru: The Central Areca Nuts and Cocoa Marketing Processing Cooperative Ltd (CAMPCO) on Tuesday urged Union Health Minister J P Nadda to take action against alleged data manipulation by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a body under the WHO, which classified areca nuts as “carcinogenic”.

CAMPCO claimed that the studies cited by the World Health Organisation were primarily focused on tobacco but were misrepresented to include areca nuts with manipulated data.

The cooperative stated that this classification has adversely impacted the livelihoods of lakhs of farmers dependent on the crop.

Seeking government intervention, CAMPCO has called for a review of the classification and advanced research by institutions such as AIIMS, New Delhi, and IISc, Bengaluru.

“Areca nut sustains millions of farmers. Misclassifications based on distorted evidence must be corrected,” said CAMPCO president A Kishore Kumar Kodgi.

The cooperative expressed optimism about government support to safeguard farmers’ interests in a letter sent to Union Health Minister Nadda on Tuesday.