By Tunji Faleye
News
Fresh investigations have emerged that pomo
consumers are at risk of cancer as a result of
contamination from carcinogenic substances
following the use of tyres to burn the skin which
is referred to as Pomo, a local delicacy being
enjoyed by the masses in Nigeria.
With the use of tyre to burn Pomo, there is
hydrocarbon- a chemical made up of hydrogen
and carbon found in coal and natural gas that
will produce carcinogenic that causes cancer.
These practices have put the lives of consumers
of Pomo in danger. For instance, record has
shown that over 100,000 Nigerians are
diagnosed with cancer every year, and about
80,000 die from the disease. It has also revealed
that Nigerian death ratio of four in five is the
worst in the whole world.
For example, cervical cancer which is virtually
100 per cent preventable kills one woman every
hour in the country, breast cancer kills 30
Nigerian women while prostate cancer kills 14
Nigerian men every day.
When contacted by our reporter, Professor Akin
Osibogun, chief medical director, Lagos
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH)
corroborated that consumers are at risk of
cancer with the use of tyres to burn the skin. He
said, “The use of tyre to burn Pomo is dangerous
as there are hydrocarbon that will be secreted
from the use of tyre and this will lead to
carcinogenic which is likely to cause cancer.”
In 2010, cancer took over from heart disease as
the number one killer disease of mankind and
report has shown that cancer kills more people
than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis
combined.
Cancer’s economic toll was $895 billion in 2008-
equivalent to 1.5 per cent of the world Gross
Domestic Product. Only in Nigeria, corporate
organisation expended a lot of funds on the
treatment of preventable cancers among their
employees every year.
With the rate of cancer in the country, the
disease doubled in 1975 and 2000 and the
burden is set to double again by 2020 while it will
nearly triple in 2030.
Reference Nigeria, has reported similar
investigation in it 19 January-25 January 2014
edition that a good number of Nigerians are at
risk of contracting cancer and other related
disease following high consumption of
unauthorised chemical and other toxic materials
from pomo (smoked cow-skin). Checks
conducted by our Consumer Protection Unit
(CPU) across markets in Lagos State show that
much of the pomo being sold in the market has
been treated by formalin, a liquid content formed
by mixing formaldehyde and water used for
preserving biological specimens including
corpses.

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