by Doris Gaskell Nuyda, Inquirer News Service

With mass-produced food served in restaurants and food chains everywhere, Filipinos have begun to look to home-grown products, like eggs from free-range chickens, as a welcome relief. Not only does one help backyard industries in the process, but she also gets to enjoy eggs that taste better.

It seems, however, that free-range eggs are not always safe to eat, especially when chickens roam near incinerators, chemical plants or dumping grounds of hazardous waste. This is the finding of a worldwide study conducted by the International POPs Elimination Network or Ipen (POPs stands for Persistent Organic Pollutants) in 17 countries, including the Philippines.

The local participating organization is the Ecological Waste Coalition, an NGO that works with different sectors in searching for sustainable solutions to waste disposal problems.

The Eco-Waste Coalition's study was conducted in Barangay Aguado in Trece Martires City, Cavite, an agricultural village where chickens and other farm animals as well as food crops are raised. A medical waste incinerator, a "thermal oxidizer plant," is nearby.

The study looked into chemical contamination of free-range chicken eggs. Chickens that laid them were allowed to wander around and so consumed different vegetation and organisms.

Eggs were part of the barangay people's regular diet, were fat-soluble, and so were appropriate for monitoring chemicals-dioxin, furan, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)-earmarked for elimination and minimization under the Stockholm Convention on POPs in 2001.

Toxic

The chicken eggs in Barangay Aguado showed levels of dioxin (a persistent toxic impurity in herbicides) that exceeded the standards, European Union limits, by more than threefold. The levels of PCBs also exceeded those limits. The chemical levels registered in the barangay were among the highest in the 17 countries studied.

A comparison of the dioxin content of eggs in Barangay Aguado and in other countries indicated that medical waste incineration was the likely source of the contamination. Other sources of contamination were dumpsites, chemical plants, power plants, metallurgic plants and cement kilns.

What the findings showed was there was a need to protect human health and the environment by controlling production, use and disposal of toxic chemicals.

We find studies like this essential in the wake of reports of contaminated food. There was the case of kamoteng kahoy cakes that caused the death of several school children. Children and adults had suffered gastro-intestinal problems because of soft drinks and other beverages.

Food safety seems to be a problem in many areas in the country. The Eco-Waste Coalition's recommendations for food safety include the accessibility of data and guidelines for the benefit of operators of hazardous waste incinerators and chemical plants.

After these findings, what's next? The next step, according to Manny C. Alonzo, Eco-Waste Coalition coordinator, is for the Department of Health, together with stakeholders, to verify and confirm those data.

Manny C. Alonzo is also coordinator of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia) and the Southeast Asia office of International POPs Elimination Project (IPEP). Call 9290376 or e-mail manny.gaia@no-burn.org.