CAMPCO writes to JP Nadda over 'manipulated' WHO data, calls for action

MANGALURU: Accusing the World Health Organization of manipulating data to classify arecanut as carcinogenic, the Central Arecanut & Cocoa Marketing & Processing Cooperative Limited 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. 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 study linking arecanut to oral cancer, Kodgi said: “In the IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Volume 85, 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,' but in the IARC Monographs, the title was altered to 'Survey of Arecanut and Tobacco Use and Oral Submucous Fibrosis, Gujarat, India.'