Segun Awofadeji Ingombe
14 May 2008
Lagos — Laboratory result of the poisonous beans eaten by students of Government Girls Secondary School, Doma, Gombe State, is out.
The result indicated the presence of outrageously high level of lindane, an organ chlorinated pesticide and endosulphan in all the samples tested.
Director-General, National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Dora Akunyili, who disclosed this while presenting a paper in Gombe, during a sensitisation workshop on safe use of agro-chemicals in preservation of food stuffs, said a sample of the cooked, uncooked beans, palm oil, onions, food seasoning, and other condiments were thoroughly analysed and found to have contained endosulphan.
About 120 female students of the school ate the poisonous beans, which led to the hospitalisation of some of them. According to her, the poisonous substance, otherwise called Gammallin, could affect the nervous system, producing a range of symtoms from nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness to seizures, convulsions and sometimes death.
The two poisonous chemical substance lindane and endosulphan found in the meal were part of pesticides banned at the 1989 Rotterdom convention.
Delivering his keynote address, Minister of Health, Alhaji Muhammad Lawal, represented by a Director from the Ministry, Chief Christ Ojimbe, said up to 40 per cent agricultural products could be lost, if adequate and preservation measures were not employed.
Lawal said this of course, does not mean the level should be in contrast to stipulated guidelines.
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