It is a normal practice for a new wave of city-based horticulture
‘entrepreneurs’ to water their gardens using just any liquid, including
chemical spills from factories and sewerage from settlements hence
feeding their consumers hazardous contaminants, they noted.
Since many vegetable consumers adhere to ‘just boil a little’
advice from nutritionists, inorganic compounds from industries find
their way into consumers’ bodies in one hand while uncooked vegetable
sandwiches and salads also allow sewerage bacteria into eaters’ stomachs
on the other, they revealed.
Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) Manager in-charge of Food
Risk Analysis, Candida Shirima told ‘The Guardian’ last week that
contamination of vegetables with chemicals such as heavy metals or
pesticides residues at levels above tolerated limits compromise safety
of vegetables and therefore predispose consumers to health effects such
as cancer, kidney failure and impairment of cognitive function in
children.
She said that the possible food safety hazards in vegetables grown
in urban areas is contamination with chemicals such as heavy metals,
which is caused by cultivation of vegetables in contaminated environment
be it soil, air or water.
That leads to a question all vegetable lovers must ask; how safe is
the environment—soil, air and water—in which your favourite veggies are
grown in the city?
In many urban gardens especially in Dar es Salaam, it is common
practice for the ‘entrepreneurs’ to use spills from factories or homes
to water their gardens, most of which are strategically located along
streams that flow waste water.
Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre’s Research Officer for Nutrition
Training Walbert Mgeni said that vegetables irrigated with sewerage
and wastewater from factories pose health risks to consumers because
they contain dangerous chemicals and bacteria.
He said that organic and inorganic contaminants on vegetables are
dangerous to people’s health because not all of them can be destroyed
through cooking.
“Organic compounds such as bacteria found in vegetables can be
destroyed by cooking for a long time but chemicals which include heavy
metals remain in vegetables and get into the body,” he said.
He said consumers of vegetables grown in urban gardens are at risk
either way—if you cook it too much, you kill organic bacteria and the
much-needed nutrients but metals remain, yet if you don’t cook, you get
nutrients plus organic bacteria.
Mgeni said that consumption of such chemicals may result into health hazards such as cancer and other related diseases.
He said the only way to preserve nutrients in vegetables is to
cultivate them in hygienic environment and irrigate them with clean
water, which is not possible to achieve in city gardens.
Cultivation of vegetables in unhygienic environment such as use of
sewage water may cause contamination of vegetables with pathogenic
microorganisms, which may cause food borne disease especially when
contaminated vegetables are eaten raw such as salads, Shirima said.
She said that assurance of safety of vegetables is a daunting task
since it is a cross-cutting issue that requires involvement of various
sectors such as agriculture, environment, health as well as consumers.
For example educating the farmers on good agricultural practices to
avoid cultivation of vegetables in contaminated environment is done by
agriculture sector while assurance of proper disposal of waste water
from industries and household is done by the sector responsible for
environment.
She called upon the vegetable growers to observe good agricultural
practices and avoid cultivation of vegetables in contaminated and
unhygienic environment in order to avoid any possible contamination of
vegetables with health risky contaminants such as heavy metals or
pathogenic microorganisms and ensure proper application of pesticides to
avoid pesticide residues in vegetables.
Last month, scientists in Kenya sounded alarm over the safety of a
number of foods sold in the country’s capital city, Nairobi, including a
range of fruits such as bananas and apples, and vegetables especially
kale, a staple popularly known as sukuma wiki. Others were milk and
poultry.
The scientists said that the foods could be laced with toxic chemicals, reported the country’s daily papers.
“Tests on samples of foods in markets and supermarkets have shown
dangerous levels of toxins like calcium carbide, hydrogen peroxide,
polychlorinated biphenyl-laden transformer oil, formalin and lead,” the
paper quoted public health experts and medical practitioners as saying,
noting that the chemicals were responsible for a litany of ailments and
complications.
French fries, popularly known as chips, and mandazi made in various
estates of Nairobi were found to have transformer oil. The oil can be
used for a long time without getting contaminated and thus saving
vendors as much as 40 per cent of costs, Kenyan press eported.SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
No comments:
Post a Comment