Alcohol in sachets: beware of chronic diseases

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Extract from the article: It is now forbidden in Togo to produce, import or market alcoholic drinks in plastic bags. This is what emerges from a ministerial order issued on 24 October 2019. However, these drinks still flood the Togolese market. Their qualities are dubious, bu

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It is now forbidden in Togo to produce, import or market alcoholic drinks in plastic bags. This is what emerges from a ministerial order issued on 24 October 2019. However, these drinks still flood the Togolese market. Their qualities are dubious, but they are prized by the youth. These products are smuggled into the country. They do not meet hygiene standards and therefore constitute a real threat to the health of consumers.

Whisky, Gin, Café Rhum, these bagged alcoholic beverages are everywhere. Marketing is free. Sold in every nook and cranny of the villages and towns, bagged alcoholic drinks or bagged whiskies are a hit with the fans of this liquor. Young people, pupils, students, motorcyclists and resourceful people are a favourite target of brewery companies.

In Sagbado, a township located in the southwestern suburbs of Lomé, Maman Ayélé runs a shack made of racks. Several bags, linked together, and sodabi are waiting to be consumed. Gango, a labourer with a dark complexion and a strikingly thin build, swallows two sachets every day. How often does he eat? No one knows. His devastated face is replaced by a smile with teeth corroded by a mysterious substance, his lips burnt by alcohol no longer understand the nuances of taste.

For 100 francs, you can buy whisky in a packet. « Alcohol in a packet is the drink of the poor. Not all of us can afford expensive bottles of alcohol. We just want to feel the taste of alcohol. We like it », says Martin Kodjovi, 40, a resident of the Agoè-Anokui neighbourhood.

It's cheaper and easy to consume. « We don't need to dilute it to drink it. We don't need a glass either. It's easy to carry around and you can get it wherever you are, even in the deepest villages of the city », says Gnandi, 30, a master mason. « I prefer Café Rhum, if I want to eat well. This drink whets my appetite. I don't mind sipping it », says this consumer.

In addition, some teachers also testify that pupils indulge in the consumption of these drinks.   Easily concealed in trouser pockets or school bags, they can easily enter classrooms. In some schools, young students can be seen sucking on 50-millilitre sachets between classes.

In 2020, in Togo, the results of a WHO study stipulate that « 62.7% of Togolese consume alcoholic beverages and have an average of 7.8 occasions during 30 days to consume alcohol ».

A juicy market? Yes

Exclusively exported from Cameroon and Nigeria, these whiskies are available to everyone. Drinkshops, shops and cabarets are the places par excellence where these bags of whisky are sold.  In the midst of a discussion on a Saturday, market day, with some customers, Maman Lili, a forty-year-old woman who runs a Sodabi cabaret in the Adidogomé-Sagbado district, confides: « It's been four years since I decided to open my own bar where I sell nothing but sodabi and these whiskies. Without wanting to exaggerate, I make a turnover of 7,000 to 15,000 CFA francs per week ». This shopkeeper has made selling these alcoholic drinks in bags her livelihood. A small basket filled with cigarettes and small cola can be found in her cabaret. A consumer in this cabaret says that « when you already have problems, you don't think about health issues. If we ban, if we suppress these drinks, it will make most of the underprivileged, unemployed people suffer. We find comfort and refuge in it. Beer is expensive and not everyone can afford a good beer ».

Placebo effect?

According to many young people, these alcoholic drinks in sachets help them to cope with their many worries. Tossou Atchrimi, a teacher-researcher and lecturer at the University of Lomé, conducted a study in 2020 on « Wine consumption by young workers in the city of Lomé (Togo): between new identity and health risks ». According to the study, 65% of the respondents report regular use of alcohol to feel good. They realise that a little drink « feels good, that it has a small tranquillising effect ».

« It makes me feel good. Sometimes when I take this, it gives me the strength to work well during the day », said Kokou, a taxi driver, proudly.  « When I drink these whiskies, I feel at ease and full of strength. Often, to free myself from my problems, I only look for this », said Boris, a whisky sachet lover, met in Maman Lili's cabaret. Bernard, an electrician in Agoè Assiyéyé, considers whisky as a way to relieve and evacuate the worries and concerns of life. « To forget worries, I take two sachets. And it works » he said.

Adjovi, 25, shopkeeper, in Sogbossito. « Every time I feel a stomach ache, I take café Rhum. It allows me to calm the pain and I have a good bowel movement. I feel like I am cured », she said.

These claims, which are considered serious, are rejected by health professionals.  People who drink these drinks are not really aware of the health consequences. For some people, these packaged whiskies have a placebo effect. They notice a reduction or even a disappearance of symptoms following the administration of substances without pharmacological action. This is explained by an autosuggestion mechanism capable of relieving the symptoms felt by an individual following the production of dopamine and endorphins by the brain.

Questionable composition

These are substances whose composition is difficult to determine. They contain high levels of methanol and toxins that are highly damaging to health and the nervous system. More seriously, laboratory analyses have revealed that the manufacturers used methanol as a raw material instead of ethanol, the alcohol authorised in the manufacture of whisky.

Serious health effects

Behind the desire to escape from these worries lie harmful effects on the health of the consumer. Scientific and technical evidence has led health professionals to say that it is a danger that reduces physical capacity and can lead to heart attacks, liver cirrhosis, nervous disorders and often insanity. These liquors expose consumers to incurable diseases.

Warning of the dangers

In the medical profession, the consumption of these alcoholic beverages in sachets is pointed out as a source of consultation and hospitalisation cases. « We receive cases of consultations for gastric problems. We often notice that this is due to the consumption of bagged whiskies. At our level, we prescribe a set of medicines to solve the problem. Excessive consumption of these drinks in sachets can lead to cirrhosis of the liver », says a nurse working in a CMS in Lomé.  The consumption of this drink, according to the nurse, can easily lead to addiction. « One of the consequences of these whiskies is dependence, and the subject no longer has any control over his life », he observes.   Koffi, a carpenter who met in his workshop in Zanguéra, says: « I have been taking « Alomo Bitters » for years and I often feel sick. But I can't give up. I can't help it ».

Professor Mofou Belo, Head of the Non-Communicable Diseases Surveillance Division at the Ministry of Health, points out that alcohol consumption leads to obesity, sedentary lifestyle, high cholesterol, weak arteries and high blood pressure.  

According to a general practitioner, excessive consumption of packet whisky can cause sexual weakness. « What consumers of packet whisky don't know is that these drinks contain a very high dose of sugar and methanol. All of these substances are very harmful to health, leading to certain pathologies such as pancreatitis, cancers and foetal alcohol syndrome », he said. 

Lambert Buffalo, a nutritionist, said that these alcoholic drinks in sachets degrade and destroy the body's metabolism. « The abusive consumption of alcohol leads to cardiovascular problems. It raises blood pressure and increases the risk of high blood pressure », he says.

Regular and excessive consumption of these alcoholic beverages in sachets is responsible for cognitive disorders: impairment of memory, planning, attention and decision-making skills. This is what Dr Zinsou Selom Degboe, clinical psychologist/addiction specialist at the CHU Campus in Lomé, underlines: « Alcohol consumption remains the primary factor in poor brain development in young people, as it causes rigidity of the central nervous system. In addition to attention, concentration, memory, abstraction and executive function disorders, chronic alcohol intoxication can cause Korsakoff's syndrome, characterised by massive and irreversible memory impairment, a tendency to fabricate to compensate for memory loss and mood disorders. In addition, alcohol intoxication exposes people to numerous harmful consequences such as alcohol use disorder or addiction, aggression, violence, theft », explains the psychotherapist.

The heart suffers when you consume these bagged whiskies. During a conference at the Diabéobe centre in Avénou, Dr Efadzi Koffi Ehlan, Cardiologist, Head of the « Coeur de Grace » Medical and Cardiological Clinic in Totsi, explained that « excessive alcohol consumption causes cardiac arrhythmias, particularly atrial fibrillation. A type of cardiac contraction that is sufficiently disordered to constitute a risk factor for stroke and heart failure ».

For Mathieu Tobossi, Specialist in food hygiene and quality, « drinking alcohol is harmful from a nutritional point of view. In fact, alcohol reduces the saliva level by 10 to 15% per unit of alcohol. Saliva enables us to digest food thanks to salivary amylase.  Taking alcohol before the start of a meal can therefore complicate digestion. Moreover, if we have already sent alcohol into the body before the meal, 20% of this alcohol will go to the stomach and 80% to the intestine. This can damage the quality of the nutrients in our food. Finally, alcohol is not recommended from a nutritional point of view, because the body itself produces the level of alcohol it needs ».

Cause of road accidents

In the transport sector, whisky in bags is pointed out as one of the causes of traffic accidents. This is why the Togolese government, in its efforts to reduce the death rate on the roads, has decided to apply a measure that is the blood alcohol test. The risks of driving under the influence of alcohol are as follows: the visual field is narrowed, perception of relief, depth and distance is modified, sensitivity to glare is greater, vigilance and resistance to fatigue are reduced, coordination of movements is disrupted, the disinhibiting effect of alcohol leads the driver to underestimate the risks and overestimate his or her abilities. The risk of being responsible for a fatal traffic accident is multiplied by 8 in case of alcohol consumption. This risk increases very quickly with the level of alcohol in the blood: it is multiplied by 6 for a level between 0.5 and 0.8 g/l, and by 40 for a level above 2 g/l.  According to the latest road safety figures, alcohol is involved in almost one third of fatal accidents.

Strengthen awareness campaigns

Young people need to be made aware of the dependence on these packaged alcoholic drinks. Parents, guardians, teachers and educational actors are called upon to take their responsibilities to save young people from the drift. « We need to strengthen awareness campaigns in our schools. We need to do more awareness campaigns in our schools, make media programmes on this phenomenon.  The objective is that young people stop consuming alcohol in bags. It should stop. Regulations should be implemented in our country. This product is a threat to public health », said an education worker. This is what Dr. Sélom Degboe, a specialist in addictions, also said.  « We need to ban the marketing of these alcoholic beverages in sachets and do primary and secondary sensitisation by targeting the general public, including places of education, churches, convents, professional groups, via the media », he said.

Urgent need for strict application of the decree

If the ministerial decision of 24 October 2019 came at the right time to cool the ardour of a youth increasingly fond of the thing, it nevertheless puts on the table the question of the effectiveness of the strict application of this provision. To date, it has been observed that the consumption circuit is still supplied with these products, thus exposing the health of Togolese to dangers and chronic diseases. Today, the Togolese government must break with inaction and put its control and monitoring units on alert. This, in order to discourage by dissuasive measures, the networks that are ready to put in danger the lives of millions of Togolese consumers. This would guarantee, at the end, a better application of this salutary provision.

Abel OZIH