Antioxidant Micronutrients as Intersectoral Link between Health and Agriculture

Abstract

Environmental and ecological disorders and the attendant health problems
especially cancer and heart diseases are a major concern currently. Although 
cancer is perhaps the most feared and best known of the chronic pathologic effects 
of environmental pollution, it should be recognized that environmental agents 
especially heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium, may also cause behavioural 
abnormality which can lead to increase in crime rate. Antioxidant micronutrients 
are protective against these dreaded disorders. Environmental problems extend 
beyond the boundaries of the traditional confines of the health sector. It also 
affects the agricultural sector and this sector may also have an ameliorative 
influence on the degree of environmental and ecological disorders. This report 
emphases the need for the two major sectors, health and agriculture to evolve ways 
of checking the deleterious effects. Increase consumption of antioxidant
micronutrients available in fruit and vegetables namely vitamins A, B, C, and E, bcarotene and selenium should be consistently recommended by the health sector to 
reduce the toxic effects of environmental pollutants. This report draws attention to 
environmental and ecological disorders and emphasizes the needs not to treat them 
in isolation but that they are inseparable. These disorders will be examined in 
conceptual and programmatic terms. Intersectoral collaboration between the 
agricultural and health sectors appears desirable by helping to prevent disease, 
promoting health and improving the quality of life by means of antioxidant 
micronutrients. The role of the agricultural sector in this regard should be to 
increase the production of these crops to make them readily available at low cost in 
Nigeria. This intersectoral collaboration is required for sustainable development of 
which health should be a goal