Fact Check: WHO, GoI refute claims of 87% Indians likely to face cancer risk by 2025 due to adulterated milk
WHO, GoI refute claims of 87% Indians likely to face cancer risk by 2025 due to adulterated milk
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus presently serves as the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), having been appointed in 2017 and subsequently reappointed in 2022.
A message is circulating on social media claiming that the WHO issued an advisory to the Government of India stating that 87% of the population in India will suffer from cancer by 2025 because of consuming adulterated milk.
The Telugu text headline reads: "87% of Indians within 8 years will suffer from cancer." It's important to note that this information is not current, as it mentions the year 2025, indicating that the claim was likely first shared in 2017.
Moreover, the post is in Telugu, which when roughly translated claims that the Animal Welfare Board members have informed the government that 68.7 per cent of milk or milk products sold in the country do not adhere to the standards of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
Fact Check:
The claim is false.
Upon searching, we found a press note issued by WHO regarding this viral news. In the press note, WHO clarified: "Contrary to reports in a section of media, WHO would like to state that it has not issued any advisory to the Government of India on the issue of adulteration of milk/milk products."
Furthermore, Press Information Bureau(PIB) clarified via a tweet that WHO had not issued any such advisory to the Government of India. On November 22, 2019, in response to an MP’s inquiry about rumors of WHO advising the government on the potential 87% population cancer risk due to the consumption of adulterated milk, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the former Minister of Family and Health Welfare, affirmed that WHO had not issued any such advisory to the Government of India regarding milk adulteration.
Addressing another query about the claim that 68.7% of milk and milk products sold in the country do not meet the standards set by the FSSAI, Harsh Vardhan responded, "The 2018 Nationwide Milk Safety and Quality Survey conducted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) indicated that only 7% (456 out of a total of 6,432 samples) contained contaminants (antibiotics, pesticides, and aflatoxin M1) that render milk unsafe for consumption. Moreover, only 12 out of the total samples showed adulterants impacting the safety of milk. These 12 samples comprised 6 samples adulterated with hydrogen peroxide, 3 samples adulterated with detergents, 2 samples adulterated with urea, and one sample was found to have a neutralizer."
According to the Economic Survey 2021-22, the total milk production in the country for the fiscal year 2021-22 was 209.96 million tonne. When the value is converted into litres, it is found that a total of 18,460.67 crore litres of milk was produced in the country in 2021-22. So, on average, 50.58 crore litres of milk was produced every day in the fiscal year 2020-21.
Several media reports also debunked the viral claim in 2023.
Hence, the claim is false. Both WHO and the Government of India have released statements to address the dissemination of this false information on the internet.