Consumer Agency scrambles as rare ailment “threatens” Dominicans

Santo Domingo.- Consumer Protection Agency director Altagracia Paulino Wednesday said she’ll notify health authorities at once to deal with a rare disease that pathologists say poses a health threat to the Dominican population.

Altagracia Paulino said she’ll contact Public Health "because that’s a very serious health issue, it’s a rare disease never been seen before."

"We must continue to widen the investigation, cross-reference it, even send it abroad to see all the food additives consumed here to see which one of them are behind it," the official said quoted by elCaribe.com.do.

As to use of bromide and dyes, chemicals which the Dominican Society of Pathology blame for the disease, Paulino said she the Agency will investigate their use locally. "We have to see which dyes; there are dyes that are banned in some countries, we would have to talk with our chemist to see what dye should not be used and perhaps is being used.”

"Look, potassium bromate (bromide) was banned by Public Health since February 2009 and is presumably not being used, but what happens with these chemicals is that it takes time for one to react, they accumulate, it was probably five years ago that you ate it and was formed and you discover it now,” Paulino said.