MIRI: The Eco Youth team of SMK Lopeng Tengah conducted an awareness talk on used cooking oil to the villagers of Kampung Lopeng Tengah at Surau Darul At-Taqwa yesterday.
It was officiated by a community leader, Penghulu Samad Ali.
Also present at the talk were school principal Ng Cheng Soo, PTA chairman Yusuf Mohamad and chairman of the Surau Darul At-Taqwa, Rangkut Abdul Hadi.
Ng said the talk was held in conjunction with the Eco Youth Challenge project, which was conducted by Sekitar Bumi Hijau a company specialising in recycling used cooking oil.
“We are hoping that this talk will disseminate information on the effects of improper disposal of used cooking oil to the people at village level.”
During the talk, the team called the villagers not to dispose of their used cooking oil into drains, which only caused environmental issues to the river system.
The villagers also learned about the health hazards of consuming food products made from used cooking oil.
They were also enlightened on gutter oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from various sources such as restaurant fryers, grease traps, slaughterhouse waste and even sewer drains.
Gutter oil has proven to be toxic, thus consumption of food prepared using this recycling oil may contribute to side effects such as diarrhoea and abdominal pain.
There were also reports that long-term consumption of the oil can lead to cancer of the stomach and liver besides developmental disabilities in newborns and children.