How often do you take eggs? Well, atleast a good number of Nairobians eat an egg or two a day. Currently, a number are likely to consume contaminated eggs unknowingly.
According to a survey by the Centre for Environment Justice and Development (CEJAD), a sample of free-range chicken eggs from areas close to landfills, recycling facilities for electronic waste, and dumps had exceptionally high concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
POPs are hazardous organic chemicals that cannot be broken down by nature.
“These are chicken that scavenge in dumpsites or in areas where recycling is done. The report is an indication for that particular contaminated site. It means that people who physically live around dumpsite and areas where there is a lot of handling of e-waste are exposed to these chemicals, “Aaron Kecha, a technical advisor from CEJAD, told Climate Action.
According to a survey by the Centre for Environment Justice and Development (CEJAD), a sample of free-range chicken eggs from areas close to landfills, recycling facilities for electronic waste, and dumps had exceptionally high concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
POPs are hazardous organic chemicals that cannot be broken down by nature.
“The eggs showed very high concentrations of POPs chemicals that are as much as 111 times higher than the EU regulatory limits for dioxins, plus dioxin-like PCBs and showed that an adult eating a single egg from one Kenyan location could be exposed to a dose of toxic chemicals that would exceed the EU daily safety limit for more than 250 days,” reads part of the CEJAD report.
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The results of the bio indicator test demonstrate that food chain goods are being contaminated by very harmful compounds from plastic garbage. This raises concern about the high degree of food contamination in Nairobi because it suggests that even animals that graze close to landfills like Dandora produce tainted milk and meat.
Even though the sample was taken from locations where plastic trash is a problem, Kecha clarified that not everyone in Nairobi who consumes eggs from free-range chickens is necessarily getting contaminated eggs.
