The hot commissioning of the irradiation facility, which was due in March 2007 to increase shelf life of food products and meet phyto-sanitary requirements required under WTO agreement to boost export of agricultural products, particularly fruits and vegetable, has been delayed further.
The facility has been set up in Lahore as a joint venture, called 'Paras Food Limited,, between Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board (PHDEB).
The delay in commissioning is said to be the denial of 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) by the Port of Muscat for the transshipment of Cobalt-60, a source for irradiation of agricultural products, particularly fruits and vegetables, on the plea that it contained radioactive material. It was being imported from Canada for Paras Food Limited by Al-Technique Corporation of Pakistan Ltd (Atcop).
PAEC is already operating Pakistan Radiation Services (Paras) at Lahore for sterilisation of surgical and pharmaceutical items such as syringes, gloves etc through the use of gamma irradiation.
Cobalt 60, a non-fissile IMDG Code class 7 radioactive material, is used to sterilise approximately 45 percent of all single-use medical supplies used worldwide. It is also relied upon to sterilise a vast array of consumer products and is used to make food supply safer by eliminating food pathogens and to reduce the incidence of disease-carrying insects.
Cobalt-60 emits high-energy gamma rays that kill micro-organisms, bacteria and pathogens, without damaging the product, thus preventing the spread of diseases and infections. Paras had placed an order for the supply of radiation source of Cobalt-60 with MDS Nordion, Canada.
M Shamim Bhatti, Managing Director, Atcop, explained to Business Recorder that the shipment was ready since November 2006 but could not be dispatched for want of NOC from Muscat Port.
The routing of this product to Pakistan required its transshipment through the Port of Muscat. Since the product is under IMDG Code class 7 of International Maritime Organisation (IMO), prior to its shipment from Canada, NOC from the following ports was a prerequisite: San Pedro (California), Kaosiung (Taiwan), Chiwan (China), Singapore, Hong Kong, Jebel Ali (Sharjah), and Karachi.
All these ports had given NOC and only it was from Muscat that the NOC was awaited for almost one year. Finally, Port of Muscat declined, despite efforts of Secretaries of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfal) and Foreign Office. Consequently, the order has now been cancelled and alternative source is being explored.
Bhatti particularly mentioned that during the transshipment Cobalt-60 would have remained aboard the ship at all time while at berth in Muscat Port. He said that Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) had already issued NOC for the import of Cobalt-60. It is shipped routinely around the world, and MDS. Nordion, the leading global producer of this material, has been safely doing so for more than 40 years under strict compliance of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) protocols for such transportation.
Given the importance of this product to global healthcare and the need to ensure that its movement is facilitated, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) had issued a unanimous resolution at its last general assembly 2005 to support its shipment. Sultanate of Oman is a member of IMO.
The Facilitation Committee of IMO had urged member governments and non-governmental organisations with consultative status to bring to the attention of the committee any instances, together with the associated reasons, where the shipment of IMGD class 7 radioactive materials and, in particular those which have medical or public health applications, encounter difficulties or are refused aboard ship or in or through ports, so as to enable the Committee to consider the matter further and to determine the actions required.
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