Report by Akshya Rout; Jajpur: With the rise in mercury, sale of unhygienic and substandard cold drinks, fruit juices and ice creams has also increased, as a large number of vendors have appeared on the roadside areas of the district of Jajpur and other areas , posing serious threat to the health of people, especially children.

The vendors are busy selling substandard drinks in many parts of the districts and in various commercial localities. The drinks on sale include different fruit juices and ice creams . Many vendors are selling juice of stale fruits at low price, especially at the bus stands and other places.

Most of juice sellers are not observing any hygiene standards while washing their utensils in which they serve the drinks to their customers. These drinks are sometimes sold in reused bottles without cleaning them properly transmitting different bacteria and viruses to the customers.

"Sale of spurious cold drinks or the drinks prepared under poor hygienic conditions is one of the main causes for various seasonal diseases among children in summer. Flies, wasps, mosquitoes and other such pests at the stalls of vendors make their beverages even more injurious to health", said Dr A.K. Mohanty of Balichandrapur.

Talking to this paper , some parents said though the sale of unhygienic food items continued all the year without any check by the authorities concerned, the situation became more serious in summer, as the demand for cold drinks increased. "Children are the worst victims of it as they get attracted easily to the colours and taste of these drinks and ice creams and ultimately fall ill," said Sujata Nanda a mother whose eight year old son is undergoing treatment in the hospital at Chattia  after drinking few glasses of spurious cold drinks . Almost all the juice and cold drink sellers use ice to make the drinks. Many ice factory owners use polluted river water to make ice .