The Health Ministry has been urged to advise consumers on what produce can be eaten after a study found some local vegetables were highly-contaminated with cancer-causing pesticides.

"Until the public can be given the assurance that local vegetables sold in the market are safe to eat, consumers would be better off avoiding such produce.

"The public should not be putting their health at risk unnecessarily," said the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president SM Mohamed Idris in a statement today.

He also called on the ministry to furnish more information by making public the detailed sampling, testings on the vegetables and their results conducted for the last few years.

CAP's statement follows a report in the New Straits Times today on a recent study conducted by the ministry's Institute for Medical Research and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Disturbing findings

The study said the most frequently-consumed vegetables from the Selayang market, Selangor - which supplies about 75 percent of wet markets, hypermarkets, night markets and grocery stores in the state - were highly contaminated with cancer-causing pesticides.

Among them, celery and curry leaf samples taken from the wholesale market in Selayang tested positive for three groups of cancer-causing pesticides.

At least 40 percent of the spinach, kangkung, round cabbage and Chinese mustard were contaminated. The tests were done on unwashed vegetables.

The report said of these vegetables, almost one-third exceeded the maximum residue level allowed by the Food Act and Regulation.

Meanwhile, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister S Veerasingam when contacted said his ministry will issue an advice to consumers if the findings are found to be true.

"The Health Ministry will have to confirm the findings and whether the vegetables are safe for consumption," he added.

Veerasingam said as the enforcement power is with the Health Ministry, including taking action against the errant farmers, his ministry could only act to advise the consumers.

"We don't want consumers to consume something that is not consumable but at the same time, we shouldn't create an alarming situation," he said.