Dear Editor,
In recent months the Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson has been very strident in championing the cause of the nation's health regarding smoking of cigarettes and other substances deemed to cause cancer. I join with those who support his exuberance to
save lives.
There are, however, many other health concerns of which the minister seems unaware or has turned a blind eye.
Let us take the emissions of smoke from diesel-fuelled vehicles. Among the main offenders are government vehicles; in and around the Corporate Area the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses are hard to ignore. The minister should know that fumes from such vehicles are highly carcinogenic, and studies have made linkages to lung, bladder, stomach, blood, voice box (larynx), and skin cancers. Fumes from diesel vehicles have been put in the same category as asbestos, tobacco, arsenic, and alcohol.
Under the Road Traffic Act a smoking vehicle should be removed from the roads, yet government-sponsored carcinogenic smoke continues to be emitted from every other JUTC bus. This is a form of state-sponsored corruption which continues without redress, putting hundreds or thousands of Jamaican citizens at risk. It must stop immediately. The police must do their jobs and remove such health risks from the streets. Even the drivers and workers in and around these vehicles, and even persons living on such roads as Mount Rosser in St Catherine are at risk.
Another smoke health risk is the Riverton Dump. The people living in Cooreville Gardens, Duhaney Park, Riverton, Patrick City, and Portmore are suffering. Governments have come and gone and they all at some time promise no more smoke from Riverton, yet there is always more smoke.
The food prepared at restaurants throughout the country are at times laced with Monosodium glutamate (MSG) -- an exitotoxin that has been linked to retina, brain and nerve damage. The minister should mandate that restaurants and food processors inform the public of its presence in food so we can decide what to eat.
There are also artificial sweeteners available locally, some of which are 600 times sweeter than sugar. For some half a pound can sweeten what you would normally take 300 pounds of regular sugar. They come with names like saccharin, neotame, cyclamate, aspartame, and sucralose, which studies in lab rats have shown aid in the development of bladder cancer. These substances should be regulated and products containing them should be clearly labelled with a health warning.
Mr Minister, over to you.
Michael Spence
Micspen2@hotmail.com
Remove health risks from the streets, Minister Ferguson
-->
In recent months the Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson has been very strident in championing the cause of the nation's health regarding smoking of cigarettes and other substances deemed to cause cancer. I join with those who support his exuberance to
save lives.
There are, however, many other health concerns of which the minister seems unaware or has turned a blind eye.
Let us take the emissions of smoke from diesel-fuelled vehicles. Among the main offenders are government vehicles; in and around the Corporate Area the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses are hard to ignore. The minister should know that fumes from such vehicles are highly carcinogenic, and studies have made linkages to lung, bladder, stomach, blood, voice box (larynx), and skin cancers. Fumes from diesel vehicles have been put in the same category as asbestos, tobacco, arsenic, and alcohol.
Under the Road Traffic Act a smoking vehicle should be removed from the roads, yet government-sponsored carcinogenic smoke continues to be emitted from every other JUTC bus. This is a form of state-sponsored corruption which continues without redress, putting hundreds or thousands of Jamaican citizens at risk. It must stop immediately. The police must do their jobs and remove such health risks from the streets. Even the drivers and workers in and around these vehicles, and even persons living on such roads as Mount Rosser in St Catherine are at risk.
Another smoke health risk is the Riverton Dump. The people living in Cooreville Gardens, Duhaney Park, Riverton, Patrick City, and Portmore are suffering. Governments have come and gone and they all at some time promise no more smoke from Riverton, yet there is always more smoke.
The food prepared at restaurants throughout the country are at times laced with Monosodium glutamate (MSG) -- an exitotoxin that has been linked to retina, brain and nerve damage. The minister should mandate that restaurants and food processors inform the public of its presence in food so we can decide what to eat.
There are also artificial sweeteners available locally, some of which are 600 times sweeter than sugar. For some half a pound can sweeten what you would normally take 300 pounds of regular sugar. They come with names like saccharin, neotame, cyclamate, aspartame, and sucralose, which studies in lab rats have shown aid in the development of bladder cancer. These substances should be regulated and products containing them should be clearly labelled with a health warning.
Mr Minister, over to you.
Michael Spence
Micspen2@hotmail.com
Remove health risks from the streets, Minister Ferguson
-->