According to Dr Subash Choudhary, a doctor at Gaur District Hospital, consuming mangos ripened using calcium carbide leads to serious health problems.
"Calcium carbide is harmful to health. Eating mangoes ripened using the chemical may cause health complications such as nausea, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, among others," he said.Every day around a dozen people, with illnesses linked to mango consumption, are being admitted to the district hospital of Gaur, according to the hospital administration.
Mangoes need three months to mature on the tree, before it can be plucked and kept for natural ripening. However, farmers and suppliers, in a bid to avoid risks, pick the fruit early and use the chemical to ripen them so that they could be taken to the market early.
Raj Kumar Sah, a lab technician at the district hospital, said that the use of carbide in small quantity--0.5gm to 1 gm--to ripen a mango is not so harmful.
"But the process of ripening is much slower when the chemical is used in limited amount. So, suppliers use it more than ten times the tolerable limit," he said.
Binod Yadav, a local of Gaur municipality-5, told Republica that his children and grandchildren suffered from fever after they ate mangoes.
"Doctors later told me that the problem was caused by the consumption of mangoes," said he.
According to medical officer Dr Manoj Kaushal, eating mangoes laced with carbide could damage liver and kidney.
"It is better to refrain from eating such mangoes," said Dr Kaushal.
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