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NAFDAC wages war against salt
manufacturers, distributors
By Onyekachi Eze
senior
reporter, Abuja
After years of ceaseless battle against manufacturers and distributors of fake and
adulterated drugs and cosmetics, the National Agency for Food, Drugs
Administration and Control
(NAFDAC) is once again locked in a running battle with manufacturers and distributors of salt, flour and other associated
products.
The ‘ war’ has to do with the iodisation of
these products in line with World Summit for Children (WSC) resolution of 1990.
The WSC had at that meeting after
considering the adverse
effect of iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) on human and animal health set year 2000 for the elimination
of IDD in all its ramifications.
This decision was adopted by the World Health Assembly in
1991 and was reaffirmed by
the International Conference on Nutrition in 1992. Nigeria is clearly 14 years behind the target date. IDD is said to be responsible for many preventable sicknesses such as brain damage in the foetus and infants, as well as
retarded psychomotor development
in children. It has also been associated with physical and
neurological damages which retard
growth in new born babies, and in most times lead to abortion or
miscarriages in pregnant women as well as still birth and decrease in
child survival.
The United
Nations International
Children’s
Education Fund (UNICEF),
prior to the 1993 active intervention world wide for the elimination of IDD noted that iodine deficiency disorder had a significant health problem in 118 countries, including Nigeria and had affected an
estimated 655 million people the world over while about 1.6 billion others stood the risk of being infected.
Nigeria’s intervention in food fortification programme
began in 1993 when the Federal Ministry of Health embarked on Universal Salt
Iodisation (USI) programme as a means of introducing iodine into diets. This
was after many consultative meetings with salt manufacturers, importers and distributors together with NAFDAC, UNICEF Nigeria and the
Standards Organisation of Nigeria
(SON).
This was
followed with the passage of a law, the Food Grade (Table or Cooking) Salt
Regulations No14 of 1996, which stipulates that all consumable table salt in
the country shall be iodised with a minimum level of 50 mg iodine per kilogram
at ex-factory or port entry and 30 mg iodine per kilogram at retail or
household level. Potassium iodate, a more stable compound than the cheaper
iodide form was recommended for use as the fortifiers.
Many years
after the war, however, the sicknesses still persist, not, however, so
pronounced during the war. The Director-General, National Agency for Food and
Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Dora Akunyili noted that a survey conducted in
Nigeria in in 1993 indicated that
less than 40 per cent of table salt sold in Nigerian markets was iodised, thus, putting an estimated 25 to 35
million people at the risk of suffering
grades one and two goiters.
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