Nigeria by Tunde Akingbade

Author:Tunde Akingbade [Tunde Akingbade]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2009-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

Reported Cases of Food Poisoning

1984 2,827

1985 5,287

1986 6,285

1987 15,986

1988 9,632

1989 4,,906

Source: Federal Ministry of Health

Professor Olufemi Odesanmi, Forensic Pathologist, Faculty of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, discovered that some of the cases of accidental poisoning he attended to ‘involved children who inadvertently swallowed poisonous substances in the house.’ The Professor during his inaugural lecture in 1991 titled; Medicine and the law: A Meeting Point said some of the children even swallowed antiseptics such as Dettol and Izal and others swallowed the herbicide Gammalin 20 which is stored at home by Cocoa farmers. Beside this, there were a few exceptional cases, like a man who died after taking ‘large quantities of alcohol with his regular dose of valium. The man, according to Odeyemi was ignorant of the fact that alcohol potentates the effects of narcotics and sedatives. In some of the Professor post mortem examination, ‘majority of suicide cases were due to poisoning and the poison used in about 90 percent of the cases is Gammalin 20.’

According to Dr. Olu Aina, FEPA’s director, about 90 percent of the pesticides used in Nigeria since 1940 are for agriculture. A surveyed carried out in Nigeria on pesticide usage by the Environmental Protection and Planning Division (the predecessor of FEPA) in 1985 indicated that about 15,000 metric tones of pesticides were consumed on an annual basis. A projection of pesticides ‘presently in use would therefore, be in order of 20,000 metric tones per annum. Experts claimed that 133 pesticides products are marketed in Nigeria by six major companies under various trade names. A survey conducted by FEPA showed that a few are formulated locally although the active ingredients are imported while the others are imported as finished products. According to FEPA, an analysis of pesticide usage in Nigeria gave the following patterns:

• Organ chlorine based pesticides, 13.5%

• Organ phosphorus based pesticides 21.1%

• Garbamates based pesticides 6.0%

• Herbicides 36.8% and,

• Miscellaneous Compounds 22.6%

Largely, due to ignorance, some Nigerians are known to have applied pesticides on their heads to kill infesting lice. Some also apply them to the mouth to treat tooth-aches. Perenox, the Copper based fungicide is used as ‘worm expeller and in the treatment of sores.’ According to FEPA’s investigation, WHO and FAO guidelines for packaging and labeling pesticides to ensure safe and proper use are usually not adhered to in respect of pesticides marked in Nigeria. When some of the pesticides marketing companies label their products in the local language, ‘some vital technical details are missing such as toxicity value (LD50), bold cautionary signs (e.g. bone and skulls), batch as reference numbers, dates of testing and antidotes (in cases of poisoning) and proper disposal method for empty containers.’ The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) controls all aspects of pesticide manufacture and marketing, as well as ensuring safe residence levels of pesticides in the environment, under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) 1976 and 26 of the 129 Priority Pollutants which must be monitored in the environment are chlorinated pesticide and PCBs.

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