Abuja The Institute of Chartered Chemist of Nigeria (ICCON) will sustain sound chemical education to tackle the adverse effects of drugs, chemicals and heavy metals on Nigerians
Mrs Taiwo Bammodu, the Acting Registrar/CEO of the institute, made the promise on Thursday in Abuja.
She spoke at the 2014 public sensitization seminar on Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) and heavy metal contamination.
The seminar was organized by the institute to draw public attention on the dangers of indiscriminate handling of chemicals.
Bammodu expressed concern that contamination of the nation’s environment had assumed alarming proportions in recent times.
She said that the seminar, the first of its kind to be held in Abuja was organized to sensitise Nigerians on the dangers of handling chemicals.
She said that contamination of the environment by heavy metals had caused damage to man and the environment..
Bammodu recalled that the lead poisoning incident in Zamfara in 2011 brought about by the unchecked of activities of artisanal gold miners led to death of hundreds of Nigerian children.
“It is a sad reality of our time that more than 400 infants lost their lives in that unfortunate incident, while thousands of children and others suffered different forms of varying degrees of anatomical damages,’’
She said that the sad incident had its root cause ignorance of the effects of metallic lead on the human system.
The acting registrar said that heavy metals like lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium etc could be encountered via paints, toys used by children, soil and food sealed with metal solders. (NAN)
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