Farida Ahmed
Millions of mothers around the world use baby diapers as a belief that they provide the greatest protection to their young by taking care of their personal hygiene and using the perfect product to protect their skin and small bodies.
But what are diapers made of? Does it actually contain a variety of dangerous chemicals potentially harmful to the child?
dangerous materials
The Child and Adult Hygiene Products Center (BAHP) assures that diapers with a long history of safe use by hundreds of millions of people around the world may contain trace levels of chemicals, but do not pose a risk to consumers.
However, a study by the French Environment Agency, which is responsible for food, environmental and occupational health and safety (ie NSIS), for disposable baby diapers, concluded that they may contain chemicals that exceed safety levels.
The study says that research has found the effects of 60 chemicals, including butyl phenyl methyl and propionate, both of which pose potential risks, as well as the controversial glyphosate compound.
The study was conducted on 23 brands of baby diapers between 2016 and 2018 available on the French market, and the results were not compared to the brands that they tested, but they are used in the French market, and are also sold in a number of markets outside France.
| Diapers may contain 60 dangerous chemicals (social media) |
Carcinogens
The French test on diapers is the first of its kind in the world, and its results came to stir controversy in a market that consumes between 3,800 and 4,800 of these diapers in the first three years of a single child's life since the 1990s.
Experts who supervised the test confirmed that many chemicals exceed the permissible limit, including perfumes that may cause skin allergy, as well as contaminated raw materials.
On the other hand, French Health Minister Agnes Bouzin emphasized that the current situation does not pose immediate risks to children's health, yet she issued with French Environment Minister Francois de Rouge and Finance Minister Bruno Le Meyer a joint statement obliging manufacturers and retailers to take measures within 15 days to get rid of these Material from diapers.
According to Reuters, glyphosate is to be phased out in France within three years, especially as it is a product that has no patent, and is being marketed around the world by dozens of chemical industry companies.
Cotton is the cause of the invention
Baby diapers did not exist before World War II, but with a shortage of cotton a single-use alternative was developed by inventor Marion Donovan, and it wasn't long before mothers realized the practical everyday benefits of new nappies that were a rectangular plastic sheeting on layers of tissue paper, According to "Babygearlab".
Since then, diapers have gone through many changes, including more than a thousand patents filed under different names, and baby diapers were very popular in the mid-eighties, and today, more than 20 billion diapers are being disposed of around the world.
Controversial article
Glyphosate is a controversial substance, although a study by the World Health Organization classified it as "probably carcinogenic" - which made it a target for health and environmental activists - its marketing is still continuing under the name "Roundup" in the United States, and is used widely Broad, according to the BBC.
Glyphosate is also still the most widely used herbicide in Europe, where European Union officials have not classified it as a carcinogen.
The Egyptian Ministry of Health denies
Which sparked controversy in France after making headlines there, and found resonance with some in the Arab countries, where Dr. Ahmed Abu Al Nasr, the first certified specialist from the Egyptian Ministry of Health to treat natural plants, wrote on his Facebook page warning of the possibility of such diapers on the market Al-Masry, especially since the French agency indicated that these diapers are also sold in a number of other countries outside France.
And Abu Al-Nasr said in his blog - which thousands interacted with - that glyphosate is a herbicide, a carcinogen and a problematic child's testicular and ovarian gland for the responsible child, as well as the thyroid gland.
Abu Al-Nasr appealed to the Egyptian Ministry of Health and the companies that produce diapers to respond with an official response regarding the presence of these dangerous substances in diapers on the Egyptian market.
Commenting on what was raised on social media, the Ministry of Health and Population denied these reports, according to Egyptian newspapers, stressing that there is no truth to the spread of children's supplies that contain carcinogens or any other harmful substances, and indicated that all the children's supplies on the market are completely safe and fit for human use, and conforming To all WHO standards, and subject to oversight by the competent authorities in the Ministry.