Killing You Softly

It was at a friend’s summer party in August. Invites to this particular friend’s get-togethers are usually well attended for its ‘Rice and Suya Very Plenty’. Nigerians love their food so much they run to their local buka after a six-hour flight between Abuja and London. This year’s was no different as we all loitered around the swimming pool savouring home music, food and drinks.

In the pool were two young Nigerian doctors. As the food and drinks passed, one openly refused to touch the delicious suya, sparkling a debate over findings that exposing food to high-pressure cooking such as grilling induces two kinds of chemicals known to cause cancer in animals and increase risks in humans. We got into a tattle about whether more people come down with cancer these days than ever and concluded that it may be an attribute of better testing methods.

Don’t stop patronizing your suya joint, but you might want to balance it with more greens and vegetables according to the experts. Of course, not to discountenance exercising and getting enough sleep. Experts say that a balanced diet and lifestyle would keep you immune to most of the non-genetic things that kill others.

Robert Norris died a few weeks ago in Texas at the age of 90. He was popularly known as Mr. Marlboro, the rustic cowboy in commercials for 14 years. It turned out Mr. Norris never smoked a stick in his life. The advert featuring him suckered unwary souls into an addiction with tobacco and a miserable battle with cancer or tuberculosis or both. More are addicted to nicotine the active ingredient in tobacco to date despite common knowledge that the evil peg kills.

When illicit business hits science-induced hard times in the West, they rush to Africa and other developing nations. In 2017, the tobacco industry still raked in $560 billion, a hideous 10% of the food and beverage industry according to businesswire.com.

Tobacco is not the only death trap dressed to look trendy, especially to impressionable minds. When you are young, you think you are invincible and that death only happens to wrinkled faces and tired bones.  Scary adverts that scared potential smokers in the West would never appear in developing countries where governments are scouting for willing ‘investors’. Truth is, these countries are the least capable of dealing with harmful side effects.

As the tobacco industry was losing revenue, inventors introduced vaping – the use of e-cigarettes or nicotine packaged in trendy flavours, specifically attractive to the younger generation. When vaping was introduced, scientists warned that the concentration of an addictive product into an environmental-friendly stick doesn’t reduce its harmful effects. They were right. This year alone, 42 deaths have been recorded in America, and over 2,000 cases of damage. Canada has recorded six and over a hundred hospitalizations. Governments in the West are tightening the noose on vaping adverts. Is Africa and other parts of the developing world listening?

Years ago, deodorants took the world by storm. Everybody wants to smell good and deodorants and antiperspirants turn people into walking perfumes for most of the working day. But products with aluminum are calling for caution. While researchers deny any link between the products and breast cancer, experts say that discretion is still the better part of valour. Another suspicious health product is the use of the foaming agent sodium lauryl sulphate commonly found in dentifrices and toothpastes. The jury is still out on their side effects and links to diseases.

Raising two young adults when I arrived in Canada about a decade ago, I quickly scanned the shelves for gentian violet, GV commonly used on open wounds in Nigeria. Not finding it, I looked in the HealthCanada website to find a warning linking GV with increased risk of cancer! It is possible GV is still sold in Nigeria where NAFDAC seemed to have died with Dora Akunyili.

Talcum powder is on the list of antenatal requirements for pregnant mothers. Its mellifluous effect soothes nappy rash and skin blisters. But a popular manufacturer of that product has just been fined a huge sum in a US class action lawsuit. That company is appealing. Nursing mothers may consider eliminating this product from their daily care routine. Africa never benefits from class-action suits.

As I was writing this, Canada’s CBC’s evening bulletin on November 14 cautions on the use of the antihistamine Benadryl used in the treatment of allergies. Manufactured in 1940, it has remained a go-to-brand for allergy sufferers, especially children. But Dr. David Fischer, an allergist in Barrie, Ontario, told CBC that diphenhydramine hydrochloride, the active ingredient in Benadryl ““makes you drowsy and irritable and if you take too high a dose or an overdose, you will end up in hospital.” Government is looking at making it a pure prescription medication due to higher safety regime in place.

Government needs to be alive to its responsibilities to the health of its citizens as it scans the globe for investors. Some investments are not worth the risk they bring. The temporary revenue and job prospects could mask ingredients that softly kills the citizenry. The best adoptable attitude could be found in the dictum often taught in journalism schools – if in doubt, leave out. In today’s information age, if in doubt and can’t find out, leave out.