Fish head consumers risk respiratory tract ailments – Expert

By Patrick Ahanor Benin City

Consumers of catfi sh head are vulnerable to respiratory tract and kidney problems, a professor of Microbiology (Nutrition and Toxicology) at the University of Benin (UniBen), George Edaghogho Eriyamremu, has said. He stated that his research fi ndings showed that catfi sh (Clarias gariepinus) gill heads was a major reservoir of cadmium toxic in local ponds whose soil is contaminated by petroleum crude. Eriyamremu, a Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of the institution’s Ekenmwn Campus, also said fi sh ponds around industrial areas in the southern part of the country were aff ected by cadmium toxic.

Th e lecturer urged for proper implementation of environmental laws aimed at protecting the environment. He disclosed this while delivering the 195th Inaugural lecture series titled: “Is it a myth or shift in Culture? Th e Environment as a Judge” at UniBen. Th e lecture was chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Faraday Orumwense. He said: “When we go out in some miliki sessions, we order for several numbers of smoked African catfi sh specially prepared with nice tasting spices. “Giving the increasing suspicion of environmental pollution from industrialisation, there may be environmental cadmium toxicity. Th ere is a heavy mental that is very poisonous and it is called cadmium. Cadmium is present in Cigarette. It is also present where you have pollutants. “When a fi sh grows in such water, or such soil, it can take up that cadmium. If you eat the fi sh, the cadmium can translate to man. “And the part of the fi sh that concentrate cadmium is found in the kidney and the gill of a fi sh. Th at is why I mentioned it. I use to eat head of fi sh before very well. But I have stopped. I only eat the head of fi sh I cleaned up myself.”

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