Nigerians have been warned by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) that polythene bags popularly known as nylon causes cancer.

It appealed to Nigerians to stop using the materials for food packaging.

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General of NAFDAC spoke in a chat with journalists on Monday in Abuja.

“Packaging of pap in nylon is not encouraging; green leaves are all over the place, leaf is the best thing to use for packaging item and it must be clean”, she said.

“Nylon is not good for packaging hot food because the heat will make the nylon leak chemicals, it must be discouraged.”

The DG explained that plastic materials usually have Bisphenol A (BPA) which can cause cancer.

“We are doing a study in our labs on different packaging of food, especially on nylon. The outcome will be out shortly,’’ Adeyeye assured.

She further cautioned against the use of aspirin to purify water, saying this amounts to adding salicylic acid into the water one intends to drink.

“Drinking water that contains salicylic acid can cause erosion of the intestine, cancer, ulcer and many more damages to human health.

“The treatment of water with chlorine and alum must be minimal and must not exceed the required amount”, Adeyeye added.