By Samuel Pimping
National Poison Prevention Week is another call for action that is commonly overlooked every year in the country. Since 2009, the fourth week of every June has been dedicated to educating and informing the public on poison prevention at home, school, work, and the general environment.
How significant is this issue in the Philippines? While there are a wide range of poisonous substances, some are more prevalent than others.
Take lead poisoning, for example. In a 2020 joint report by UNICEF and Pure Earth, 20 million Filipino children have blood lead levels above 5 µg/dL—a degree of toxicity in which decreased IQ and delayed puberty, among others, become likely. This is an alarming fact that poses a looming threat to the welfare of an entire generation.
From food poisoning in restaurants to a toxic oil spill near Mindoro Island, we must explore the most common instances of poisoning and the efforts taken to prevent them.
Poisonous substances
Anything can be a poison. Pesticides, methane, apples, and even just oxygen or water can be poisonous depending on how much of it is absorbed by the body. In other words, a poison is not just about the substance itself; rather, it is more about the amount of it.
“The dose makes the poison.” This fundamental principle of toxicology concisely describes the nature of lethal dosages.
Apple seeds contain amygdalin. When they are chewed or broken down (such as when the whole apple is juiced or blended), the amygdalin degrades into cyanide, which is an extremely deadly, fast-acting poison that prevents cells from using oxygen.
If so, then why are the many people who have eaten apple seeds still alive? This is because you would have to eat an absurd amount in one sitting. No one would ever eat cups of apple seeds for any reason, so cyanide poisoning by apples is highly unlikely.
That said, the lethality of a dosage also depends on the size and health of the person ingesting it. The same amount of poison will have a greater effect on a child than an adult simply because the toxin is much more concentrated in a small body. If the victim is sickly, then it poses an even greater problem. These are the reasons why it is still recommended to remove apple cores before blending or juicing them into your favorite drink.
The reality that anything can be a poison shows why it can be difficult to provide general guidelines that encompasses all possible scenarios for poison prevention. After all, how you handle one hazard may not apply to the other!
Food poisoning incidents
“102 students, teachers, parents victims of food poisoning in Sulu.” This headline describes the predicament that ruined a simple camping trip this February 2023. Half of them were hospitalized, and almost all the others had nausea and vomiting.
They were given binignit or ginataang bilo-bilo by troops from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Considering that all victims had consumed the same food, the source of the food poisoning was clear. It was reported that the AFP would investigate the incident. Unfortunately, no update was publicized on how something so preventable had been allowed to happen at the hands of the military.
A more extreme case is the toxic coconut wine poisoning on Christmas eve of 2019. In Laguna and the Quezon provinces of Luzon, at least 11 people died and over 300 people were hospitalized due to methanol poisoning. The culprit was the improperly handled Lambanog, or coconut wine. The owner had been apprehended afterwards.
It happens when you least expect it. Food poisoning incidents occur more than one would think either at home, parties, or public places such as restaurants.
Preventing and treating poisoning
So, what are the basic steps that can be taken to prevent instances of food poisoning? A few examples are washing your hands before and after handling raw meat, properly cooking beef, pork, poultry, and fish, immediately refrigerating perishables, and avoiding water consumption from untreated streams or wells.
It is important to note that honey must never be fed to infants. Even if you feel that it is safe to eat because you felt no effects from sampling it, honey can cause botulism in babies because of their rudimentary immune system.
You might also be wondering why steaks can be eaten rare. This is because on whole cuts of beef, pathogenic contamination is only on the outside. Searing the exterior is enough to kill any unsavory bacteria that may make their way into your stomach. Of course, this only applies if the meat has been handled properly throughout the entire process from slaughtering and cutting to cooking and serving.
In a 2023 report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that 40% of restaurant food poisoning outbreaks were linked to sick workers. This may be due to unforgiving management policies that leave a worker choosing whether to take an unpaid sick day or force themselves to go to work despite being ill. It is therefore crucial for restaurant owners to not penalize workers for becoming sick without their fault—not only for the welfare of the employees but also for the safety of the consumers.
What would you do if you began having symptoms of food poisoning? If you have stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, a fever, and/or frequent vomiting, then that suspicious-looking meal you just had may have been the cause.
If you keep vomiting and defecating, the first thing to always do is to rehydrate as much as you can. Dehydration sets in faster than you would expect when your body keeps on expelling fluids. Water will do, but in some cases, oral rehydration salts can be more helpful if you feel your mouth still feels dry or if you urinate infrequently.
Food poisoning can usually be treated with enough rest at home. However, you should seek medical help whenever the symptoms are severe or if you are vulnerable to poison. Bloody diarrhea, high fever, and vomiting so frequently that you cannot keep anything down are signs that you need to find a doctor immediately. Young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those who are already sick are susceptible individuals.
Lastly, if you ever feel sick right after eating at a restaurant or party, always, always let the management or organizer know so that a possible outbreak can be controlled as soon as possible. This is also to better allow you the opportunity to seek compensation if it turns out that they are found to be at fault after an investigation.
Poisoning the environment
In many situations, environmental issues are the direct cause of poisoning problems. A horrific example of this is the oil spill near Mindoro Island in February 2023. Almost a million liters of fuel oil put the lives of both people and animals in imminent danger. Over a hundred residents in Oriental Mindoro have shown poisoning symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and fever.
In environmental disasters such as this, the health and safety of the people must be put first before anything. Those with respiratory issues were advised to evacuate and all others were told to equip themselves with industrial gas masks.
On a global scale, about one million people die every year due to lead poisoning. Those who were exposed to lower dosages, particularly children, were afflicted with irreversible health issues for a lifetime such as inhibited learning abilities. It is entirely preventable, and while lead paint has been phased out in the Philippines, there is still much more to be accomplished to achieve a lead-free environment for the younger generation.
Lead sources can include mining, electronic waste such as batteries, paint, ceramic glazes, and other substances. A global ban has been placed on leaded petrol, and restrictive laws and regulations have been promulgated across nations to control potential exposure to the toxic material.
Knowing the problem to address its cause is the very philosophy of National Poison Prevention Week. While we can never know when misfortune will strike, being aware of it can help us avoid the complications that will inevitably come along the way.
Prevention is better than cure. This is a saying that can only be taken literally when the matter concerns the people’s health and safety.
Sources:
About 1M people die yearly due to lead poisoning: WHO. (October 25, 2022). Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1187015
Africa, R. (February 28, 2023). 102 students, teachers, parents victims of food poisoning in
Sulu. https://malaya.com.ph/news_news/102-students-teachers-parents-victims-of-food- poisoning-in-sulu/
Aleccia, J. (May 20, 2023). Sick workers tied to 40 percent of restaurant food poisoning
outbreaks, CDC says. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/sick-workers-tied-to-40- percent-of-restaurant-food-poisoning-outbreaks-cdc-says
Food poisoning symptoms. (December 07, 2022). Centers for disease control and prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/symptoms.html
Philippines beats 2020 phase-out deadline for lead-containing paints. (October 23, 2020). IPEN. https://ipen.org/news/philippines-beats-2020-phase-out-deadline-lead-containing-paints
Proclamation no. 1777, President of the Philippines. (2009). https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2009/05/18/proclamation-no-1777-s-2009/
Rees, N. & Fuller, R. (July 2020). The toxic truth: Children’s exposure to lead pollution
undermines a generation of future potential. https://www.unicef.org/media/109361/file/The%20toxic%20truth.pdf
The dose makes the poison. (August 17, 2022). ChemicalSafetyFacts.org. https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/health-and-safety/the-dose-makes-the-poison/
