Emergency Best Posts in Thread: Public market fruit vendors are using artifical ripping chemicals!

Hello everyone,

Ive been buying fruits in the public market in Dumaguete before and when l found out that fruit vendors are using artifical ripening i am shocked and since then l never buy fruits inside the market again. What they usually do is put CALBURO in a water then they wash the fruits in there.

Did you know that CALBURO contains calcium carbide that causes cancer?

Calburo ripens fruits especially banana but its very toxic for human body.! Acetylene (Yes the gas used in some forms of welding). The resulting ripe fruit is very toxic. It causes cancer due to carcinogenic properties of calcium carbide. Acetylene is also extremely reactive and traces of it can produce blisters and mouth ulcer if it comes with contact with skin and mouth.
Accidentally, the nicest lookimg fruit are the more likely to be ripped with calcium carbide, while the imperfect ones (some black spots and black stem on bananas for example) are more likely to be naturally ripened.

Ill post some links later here to help you more aware of every fruit you're eating.
This is illegal. Vendors who are practicing this should be imprisoned.

 

Nasty stuff. Seems like it's not so good for the person using it either.

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+1434

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS/ Dry /calcium/ carbide in contact with skin may cause dermatitis. Contact with moist skin & mucous membranes leads to ulceration & scarring. A peculiar type of melanoderma with strong hyperpigmentation and numerous telangiectases is often observed. Persons exposed to calcium carbide frequently suffer from cheilitis characterized by dryness, swelling and hyperemia of the lips, intense desquamation, and deep radial fissures; erosive lesions with a tendency to suppuration can be observed in the mouth angles. Workers with a long professional history often suffer from nail lesions ... eye lesions with pronounced hyperemia of the lids and conjunctiva, often accompanied by mucopurulent secretions, are also observed. In heavy cases the sensitivity of the conjunctiva and cornea is strongly reduced. While the keratitis and keratoconjunctivitis evolve first without symptoms, they may later degenerate into corneal opacities.
[International Labour Office. Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety. 4th edition, Volumes 1-4 1998. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office, 1998., p. 104.58] **PEER REVIEWED**

CASE REPORTS/ The fast ripening of fruits means they may contain various harmful properties. A commonly used agent in the ripening process is calcium carbide, a material most commonly used for welding purposes. Calcium carbide treatment of food is extremely hazardous because it contains traces of arsenic and phosphorous. Once dissolved in water, the carbide produces acetylene gas. Acetylene gas may affect the neurological system by inducing prolonged hypoxia. The findings are headache, dizziness, mood disturbances, sleepiness, mental confusion, memory loss, cerebral edema and seizures. We report the case of a previously healthy 5 year-old girl with no chronic disease history who was transferred to our Emergency Department with an 8-h history of coma and delirium. A careful history from her father revealed that the patient ate unripe dates treated with calcium carbide.
[Per H et al; J Emerg Med 32 (2): 179-80 (2007)] **PEER REVIEWED** PubMed Abstract Full text: PMC2289291

/CASE REPORTS/ Calcium carbide used in fruit ripening industry as a cheap alternative to natural plant hormone ethylene produces highly inflammable acetylene gas. Inadvertent ignition of this gas can cause severe ocular burn injury with unilateral or bilateral blindness. To determine the characteristics and visual outcome of ocular burn injuries from calcium carbide during mango ripening season of West Bengal, eastern India. A prospective study of all cases of calcium carbide related ocular burn injury attending a tertiary care hospital during mango ripening season was carried out. The demographic features, characteristics of the injury, management and outcomes were recorded. Fifty five eyes of 33 patients were studied. Males were more commonly affected (20 patients, 60.6%) than females. The injury was bilateral in 22 patients (66.66%). Seventeen patients (51.51%) were below 20 years of age. Ten eyes had open globe injuries and 45 eyes had closed globe injuries. One eye of a patient had to be enucleated (3%). Children below 14 years of age were mainly injured while playing with indigenous fireworks of shooting carbide. Middle aged women were affected particularly during ignition of evening lamps. Carbide lamp was another source of injury. Males are more commonly affected by calcium carbide related ocular injuries. Children and young adults are the common victims. Such injuries can involve both the eyes and cause a permanent visual disability.
[Bandyopadhyay S et al; Nepal J Ophthalmol 5 (10): 242-5 (2013)] **PEER REVIEWED** PubMed Abstract

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlAxfNYClo

 

Hey there Solid_Pan,

Thanks for telling me that. I don't require you to believe though. I am telling this to people to start to be aware by checking every fruit they would buy next time.

Did I ever mention that ALL vendors are doing it? Perhaps I missed adding the word "MOST' forgive me.
Of course EXCEPT to those small vendors who only have few items. They are surely not using artificial ripening.

Ofcouse I have talked to some vendors as I wondered why most of their fruits like banana looks so perfectly ripped.

And when I asked (as if I don't care) what do they use, they said Calburo (ripped in one day) and the other brand name that ripes in 3 days ).

They have big suppliers who harvest fruits like banana and when they need to deliver it in bulk they will put artificial ripening in the box so when it arrives to all the vendors its already ripe or upon vendors request. Some vendors will do it themselves.

Have you ever wonder why almost all the fruits like banana are perfectly ripped? Or they get ripped all at once?
I am writing this post as a concerned citizen who cares. If you need NO care about your health then go ahead its your choice.

I just like to share, so innocent people will check every fruit before they buy to never buy fruits that are perfectly ripped because big chances are its being artificially ripened.

Since you said you don't believe this Calburo thing., I just searched something on the internet upon replying to you and found this news before from SUNSTAR which prohibits the use of this Calburo thing.

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/396188

I shared this experience ONLY for people who care for their health and for their love ones.

If you don't, you can just ignore. Thank you.

 

Let me clearly say that I do not believe you! The market fruit vendors have a big problem with the speed of riping of their fruits. The next day these fruits can not be sold anymore. Most of their customers are looking for near-to-ripe fruits, so they can store them at home for 2 or 3 more days. If you told here that they are using chemicals to slow down riping, than I maybe would believe you...

Robert, who happily buys fruit at the market 3 to 4 times a week

 

Seen it used over the years especially for bananas, 'cept up in the 'bukid', they don't mix with water, just chuck the fruit into big boxes with tops and put a couple of pieces of the calcium carbide at the bottom. Just my opinion but it's not really earth-shattering news, most of the people(farming folk), I met that have used it regularly, all lived well into their 70's & 80's, some even older.
If you really are going to be giving out calamitous health warnings etc, please feel free to mention also the huge volumes of white rice local people consume, the usual copious amounts of white sugar in everything and the monotonous regularity of overfeeding on lechon-baboy at parties etc.

 

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/396188

same for Mangoes....be careful what you buy

 

If I listened to everything I am told about what to put inside me, what chemicals may or may not be used in processes and what effect they may have then I think I would eat nothing. From this and other posts it seems you have an inner desire to find something to sound off about whereas IMHO you would be better off being somewhere (physically or spiritually) where you can find some sort of inner peace.

 

HMM WONDER IF YOU BUY THE GREEN BANANNAS FIRST AND LET THEM RIPEN FOR THEMSELVES THEN NO CHEMICALS ???????