By Ebele Orakpo

Health is wealth and a healthy nation is a wealthy nation, so if the Nigerian government does not take care of the health of the citizens, then they should forget about making the nation one of the top 20 economies by 2020.

In this chat with Vanguard in his office in Awka, Dr.  Samuel Chike Okafor, a lecturer in the Department of Applied Biochemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka says improper storage of salt, use of aluminum foil in cooking and potassium bromate in bread, could be contributing to the rise in cases of cancer, kidney and liver problems in Nigeria. Excerpts:

Potassium Bromate: Dr Okafor said although potassium bromate was banned in 1993, it is making a come-back. “Potassium bromate increases the volume of bread and because of the harsh economic reality of our day, sometimes we go for quantity rather than quality so if you look at the volume of the bread, you will go for it.

A lot of alternatives have been developed but it seems potassium bromate keeps beating them. In fact, bakers just decided to use it as an additive that gives the most reliable result. It imparts so many qualities on the loaf like flavour and colour.

These qualities endear potassium bromate to bakers so it has been very difficult for them to go for alternatives. Also in terms of price,   potassium bromate is relatively cheap and readily available so I decided to do the research to find out if bakers are complying with NAFDAC directive that they should stop using potassium bromate and the levels in our products. I discovered that some bakers still use it because last year, NAFDAC intercepted N100 billion worth of potassium bromate.

Result: “We found 7 – 9 parts per million (ppm). Although the level may be low, it is higher than the level prescribed by the Food and Drug Administration of the US but some scientists believe that potassium bromate is very toxic at any level. We fed the bread to rats and the highest level we got was over 9 ppm and that the bread had deleterious effect on the livers and kidneys of the rats. So this may be contributing to the rise in cases of liver and kidney diseases so doctors will have to include it in the list of culprits when a patient presents with liver or kidney problem.

Rule of thumb:
Okafor said there is a simple way of knowing whether a loaf contains potassium bromate or not. “Just compress the loaf and if it bounces back to its original size, then it gives you an idea that it doesn’t contain potassium bromate but if you compress it and it slowly gets back to the original size, it is an indication that it has potassium bromate.”

He, however, noted that bread that has been baked long enough at high temperature even if it contains potassium bromate, a lot of it will be converted to potassium bromide so tests will not show the presence of potassium bromate.

“Bromide poses its own health problems called bromide dominance so at times, NAFDAC will check a loaf for bromate but they don’t find it and they will say the baker is complying but the baker bakes the loaf to a level that all the bromate is converted to bromide. Bromide is even more dangerous than bromate because it has long half-life in the body. It can cause a lot of things like prostate cancer, cancer of the thyroid, breast cancer etc.”

He warned bakers to desist from using potassium bromate. “They can use ascorbic acid though the argument is that loaves treated with ascorbic acid cannot withstand handling abuse as those treated with potassium bromate. Apart from that, the way a seller handles bread, you notice some particles chipping off but if you use potassium bromate, the particles do not easily chip off. And then when you eat such bread, you have a feeling that it contains so much butter and ascorbic acid does not give that same effect although it is safer,” he said.

Aluminum foil:
According to Okafor, in time past, “our forefathers used to wrap food in plantain leaves but the in-thing now is aluminum foil for grilling, boiling, roasting and packaging food. I embarked on a study to check if aluminum at high temperature will leach into the food because it has been found that aluminum is a metallo-estrogen.

It enhances the activity of estrogen as a carcinogen so it has been discovered that estrogen, especially in post-menopausal women can lead to breast cancer. So metallo-estrogen can activate estrogen receptor and act in the place of estrogen. This can have synergistic effect with estrogen to initiate or boost cancer effects.”

He noted that aluminum is also implicated in anaemia and osteomalacia. It is also a neurotoxic and neurodegenerative substance. “What I did was to expose the content of the foil to a temperature of 140 degree Celsius for 30 minutes. At the end of the day, I checked the level of aluminum in the food.

“I had done the baseline aluminum study before this. I discovered there was increase in the level of aluminum in the food from over four to over 14 so it means that the aluminum foil is not to be exposed to high temperatures. So instead of cooking food in aluminum foil, we should find an alternative. I want the society to take note of this because any society that is down with ill health will not be productive and the economy will be affected,” he said.

Asked if it has contributed to the increase in the incidence of cancer in Nigeria , Okafor said: “Yes, I believe so. Further studies have shown that antiperspirants contain a lot of aluminum and what it does is to block the sweat duct and the person will not perspire. I noticed that antiperspirants are applied very close to the breast and you find out that the cancer is more in the area very close to where the antiperspirant is applied.

Iodized salt:
Speaking on his work on iodized salt, Okafor said exposing salt to air/moisture decreases the level of iodine in the salt and could lead to iodine deficiency. “It is expected that the salt we consume must contain iodine which is a very important micronutrient and it has been found that iodine deficiency is one of the problems plaguing humanity.”