Dr Isuwa Adamu, Director-General,
Nigerian Institute of Leather Science
and Technology (NILEST), Zaria, on
Tuesday warned against the
consumption of animal hides and
skin known locally as “ponmo”.
Adamu told the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the
consumption of the product as meat
substitute was dangerous to health.
According to him, scientifically,
ponmo does not have any
nutritional value to human health.
“In fact, it is not advisable for you to
consume ponmo in the sense that
some of the animals killed and used
for ponmo actually have skin
diseases.
“Some of these skin diseases are
such that boiling them ordinarily,
may not kill the bacteria”, Adamu
said.
He added that some of the animals
killed had been ill and undergoing
injections but the rearers went
ahead to kill them, leaving the
buyers vulnerable to chemicals in
the animal skin.
“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.
“Remember your skin is the major
protective organ of your body and
your skin harbours so many of the
harmful things that are supposed to
penetrate into your body’’, he
explained.
He added that the skin of animals
harbour so many of the harmful
waste materials that the body
secretes and boiling only could not
remove some of those wastes.
The NILEST boss said the institute
was putting up efforts to sensitise
the public and advise governments
on policies that will help to reduce
the consumption of animal skin to
the barest minimum.
According to him, ponmo
consumption is a national and
traditional issue that just putting up
laws may not really help to stop it.
Adamu advised the government to
come up with policies that could be
enforced to reduce the consumption
of hides and skin as meat substitute.
www.dailypost.ng/2014/10/07/ponmo-consumption-dangerous-health-dg-institute-leather-science/