Choose wisely - go organic this Holi!

With Holi -the festival of colours coming up -- everyone is busy buying colours, 'pichkaris', and balloons but with increasing environment pollution and severe allergic reactions to synthetic colours, there is a growing awareness among people to opt for organic variants.

"In an approximately Rs 4,500-crore unorganised Holi colour market, the share of the organic variety is miniscule, but growing," said Madhumita Puri, Founder and Executive Director of Avacayam Naturals, a Delhi-based manufacturer of organic colours.

The adverse effects of synthetic colours was observed in a study titled 'The Holi Dermatoses', published in the Indian Journal of Dermatology. It found a spate in skin diseases following the spring festival in India.

In the study conducted on 42 patients in Kolkata, 11 patients suffered due to activities related to preparation of colors and 12 reported aggravation of pre-existing dermatoses.

Nearly 60 per cent patients reported itching, while others reported to have suffered from a burning sensation, scaling, redness and watering of the eyes, as per the study. Readmore