The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) has called on residents to avoid plastic bottled drinks that have been exposed to sunlight for a long time.
LASCOPA held a stakeholder’s parley with producers, distributors and consumers of plastic bottled drinks on ways to mitigate the health effect of exposed plastic bottle drinks to sunlight on consumers.
The forum held at Alausa, Ikeja, was tagged “Exposure of Plastic Bottle Drinks to Sunlight: Effects on Consumers Health.
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Addressing participants, the Board Chairman of LASCOPA, Mrs. Funmi Falana, in her goodwill message, said that the parley would afford the participants the opportunity to deliberate and make informed decisions on healthy consumption especially as it concerns bottle drinks.
WHAT THIS MEANS:
- Plastic bottles, irrespective of the materials used in producing them, portend great danger to the environment due to their poor biodegradability issue.
- These plastic bottles are detrimental to health as most plastic items release a tiny amount of chemicals into the beverages or food they contain.
- As temperature and time increase, the chemical bonds in the plastic increasingly break down and chemicals are more likely to leach, thereby entering into the body system.
- Manufacturers need to comply with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and other relevant laws and regulations governing product manufacturing, storage and distribution.
The General Manager, Mr Afolabi Solebo, who allayed the fears of consumers, stating that the amounts of the chemicals are little, also warned that consumers should avoid consuming contents contained in plastic containers left in extreme heat because these doses could add up as a result of the long-term effects of consuming plastic products persistently expose to sunlight.
