Health implications of this quite popular but dangerous practice

 Killing Us Slowly

If you move around Lagos, or many other cities across Nigeria. One thing you would notice is that most shops display their wares, especially consumable beverages and also different types of bottled water outside. Oftentimes, at the mercy of the unforgiving hot Sun, unleashing its ultraviolet radiation on the products.

Unfortunately, both the sellers, and consumers are unaware of the health implications of this quite popular but dangerous practice.

I don’t know why I am so emphatic about the role of the unregulated food industry in Nigeria’s huge health challenges. I worry myself so much whenever I see these things because they compound an already messed up system leading to bigger health challenges.

A study done by the University of Florida found that if a plastic water bottle is exposed to long periods of heat, it can release bisphenol A (commonly abbreviated as BPA) and the chemical element antimony into the water.

The study measured the levels in bottles that were kept at very high temperatures and found that the higher the temperature, the higher the levels of BPA and antimony leached into the drinking water.

Researchers say that BPA has been found to change hormone levels, can lead to cardiovascular issues, and even increase the risk of some cancers. Introducing antimony into your system can lead to a range of gastrointestinal issues including diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach ulcers.

Even certain health challenges such as infertility and erectile dysfunction  can also be traced to the effects of BPA leaching into consumables.

More worrying is that the above research was carried out in a society where people adhere to a larger extent on recommended quality of plastics in food packaging. Not in a place like Nigeria where no one cares about such things, and most plastic bottles have no information underneath to know what they were made from.

Infact, the plastic industry is one of the most unregulated in Nigeria, and almost every nook and cranny has one churning out plates and bottles ignorant of the effect of quality on human health.

If exposure to sunlight has this effect on ordinary water, imagine what it would do to other drinks, even pasteurized ones that we see everywhere under the sun. There is no way what people consume from those drinks won’t have different chemical compositions from what was originally put in those plastic bottles.

For example, many vitamins are sensitive to the effect of UV light and, therefore, sunlight. The vitamins most affected include vitamin A, B2 (riboflavin), B6, B12 and folic acid. Some of those drinks lay claim to a lot of these Vitamins.

The global standard is that plastic bottled water and drinks should be stored in PET bottles which are considered safe to some extent. But have you ever turned either your bottle water or bottled drink upside after drinking to know what type of plastic it was made from? 

While it is generally considered a “safe" plastic, and does not contain BPA, in the presence of heat it can leach antimony, a toxic metalloid, into food and beverages, which can cause vomiting, diarrhea and stomach ulcers.

Even though PET plastic (polyethylene terephthalate) is BPA free, it is not totally healthy. It is also associated with the same health risks such as stunted growth, reproduction issues, low energy levels, body balance issues, and inability to process stress.

Add to that, exposure to sunlight is also likely to further impact vitamin degradation in these products, which are unlikely to contain the nutrients they claim to have by the time the consumer is drinking them.

My question is, are there no better ways to advertise these products without direct exposure to sunlight, to avoid blaming village people for ailments we brought upon ourselves via ignorance?

As seen on Alepa Da vin-c timeline

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