By Angela Onwuzoo
Nigerians have been warned against some health risks associated with the consumption of cowhides popularly called ‘Ponmo’ processed with flames from burning tyres and fuel.
A health expert, Mr Amos Chinenye, who gave the warning, said consuming ponmo processed with flames from burning tyres and fuel, is dangerous to health and could cause cancer.
Chinenye, who is the Deputy Director of Environmental Health, Enugu State Ministry of Health, said tyres were rubber products mixed with organic compounds that could lead to some health complication.
Ponmo is derived from cowhide after it has been tenderised in hot water and the hair removed with razor blade or burnt with fire fuelled mostly by disused tyres and plastic which the deputy director said was injurious to health.
“Burning cowhides or any other animal skin and meat to be consumed by human beings with tyres or fuel is dangerous and it causes cancer.
“It is also a source of pollution to the environment. It, therefore, affects man through the inhalation of the pollution from the burning, as well through consumption of the animal skin or meat,’’ he said.
“The Ministry of Health has been going to abattoirs in the state to monitor and stop people who are still in the practice of using tyres and fuel to burn or roast their animal skins.
“The ministry is also planning to present a bill to the State House of Assembly to enact a law that would stop the usage of tyres, fuel and other dangerous materials in processing consumable items.’’
Chinenye urged the public to avoid the usage of rubber materials, fuel and other harmful materials in burning their meat and cowhides.
He said cowhides and the substances contained in them usually go into the animal skin while burning, and this is dangerous to man and can as well cause cancer.
“Due to the penetration of the poisonous chemical substances from the tyres and fuel into the skin of the animal while burning, it is not healthy for human consumption as it is cancerous,” he said.
Before the latest advise, the then Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Leather Science and Technology, Zaria, Dr Isuwa Adamu had in 2014, warned that consumption of pomno was inimical to the wellbeing of humans.
He said:“In fact, it is not advisable for you to consume ponmo in the sense that some of the animals killed and used for pomo actually have skin diseases. Some of these skin diseases are such that boiling them ordinarily, may not kill the
bacteria.
“Some of the animals because of the ailments that they have gone through, are sometimes treated by way of injection with chemicals. People don’t allow these chemicals to complete its cycle and be removed from the body; they sometimes go ahead to kill these animals.
“So, if you consume the ponmo, the tendency is that you are consuming the chemicals directly because the skin part of the animal retains most of the harmful substances.”
