For many South Africans, buying an affordable cooking pot from a roadside trader or informal market is simply a matter of survival. When you're feeding a family on a tight budget, spending hundreds or even thousands of rands on branded cookware isn't an option. But health experts are now warning that what seems like a bargain could come at a devastating cost. Many of these so-called artisan or three-legged cast pots are made from recycled scrap metal or coated with unsafe paints, and they may contain dangerous levels of lead, arsenic and other toxic heavy metals. Every time food is cooked in these pots, those toxins can leach into meals and accumulate in the body over time. The consequences can be severe, ranging from kidney damage and developmental delays in
children to reproductive problems and even lifelong neurological damage. So how widespread is this problem, how can consumers tell the difference between safe and unsafe cookware, and what should
government be doing to protect vulnerable communities? We're unpacking the issue tonight.