“Delicious, but ponmo is dangerous to your health” - Scientist

Weeks ago, reports went round the government was planning to ban the consumption of animal hides and skin known as ponmo. Nigerians who are lovers of ponmo kicked. In any case, a scientist has said that ponmo is dangerous to health.

“These people are hell-bent on snatching this ponmo from our mouth” some people might say but the scientist, Dr. Isuwa Adamu, warns that apart from deriving no nutritional value from the ponmo, consumers could contract disease through them.

Speaking to NAN on Tuesday, Adamu, who is the Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Leather Science and Technology (NILEST), Zaria said:“In fact, it is not advisable for you to consume ponmo in the sense that some of the animals killed and used for ponmo actually have skin diseases.

“Some of these skin diseases are such that boiling them ordinarily, may not kill the bacteria,”
He added that some of the animals might have been ill and undergoing treatment but the rearers went ahead to kill them, leaving the buyers vulnerable to chemicals in the animal skin.

“Some of the animals because of the ailments that they have gone through, are sometimes treated by way of injection with chemicals” he said, “People don’t allow these chemicals to complete its cycle and be removed from the body; they sometimes go ahead to kill these animals.

He explained further: “So, if you consume the ponmo, the tendency is that you are consuming the chemicals directly because the skin part of the animal retains most of the harmful substances.

Remember your skin is the major protective organ of your body and your skin harbours so many of the harmful things that are supposed to penetrate into your body”.

He also said that the skin of animals harbour so many of the harmful waste materials that the body secretes and boiling only could not remove some of those wastes.

The NILEST boss said the institute was putting up efforts to sensitise the public and advise governments on policies that will help to reduce the consumption of animal skin to the barest minimum.

According to him, ponmo consumption is a national and traditional issue that just putting up laws may not really help to stop it. A government policy against the use of ponmo as meat substitute, he maintained, would enhance the quality and quantity of raw hides and skin that are available to meet the demands of the tanneries.