By Michael Ita Bassey
Environmental issues have been a problem to living things on earth both animals and human beings. Fact of live, it is important that clean and clear oxygen is vital and solution to good health for every living things, most especially human being. Clean environment and clear atmosphere determine long lives-span of the living.
The truth and most important is cleanliness, as “cleanliness is Godliness”, for some of us that believe in God. It is very understandable that good environment and clear atmosphere attract good health to human-beings.
Must I reject good environment, prefer bad one? I could be a mad person, because only a mad person preferred a dirty environment due to his/her health condition, but if she/he will recover, it is possible to avoid dirty places.
Recall that the effect of black soot in Port Harcourt, Rivers State of Nigeria became noticeable in November, 2016. Resident of Port Harcourt discovered that there was a cloud of soot above them and it found its way into their lives and became panicky, raising distress alarm. Campaigns have been-on, in the conventional media, social media and images and videos shared online, it wasn’t a false alarm.
In a state where millions of people reside but are suffering from air pollution, it is difficult to live, children and adult, let alone the farmland, water, food stuff which are always uncovered by their vendors.
The question is! Is it multi-national oil companies or illegal refineries that are the causes of soot that daily pollute the environment and its atmosphere? The answer is not yet ascertained.
According to a Medical expert, Dike Okwelum, what happens in one area affects everything, no matter how far away. There are many kinds of pollution but the ones that have the most impact on health are air, water and noise pollution.
Could you imagine what residents always experienced such as their feet becoming black after walking barefooted around the house, clothes become black after being washed and hanged to dry, same black also affects clothes inside the house, wake-up in the morning you find black spot in your nostril, if you cough you discover some black substance. More than two years since the attention of agencies concerned was brought to this issue, nothing has been done.
Lives are at risk in these communities where children are born and their qualities of life are affected daily, hence, something should be done quickly to ameliorate the situation.
Globally, some countries have taken measures to end the dangerous or hazardous effects of soot/pollution on the environment and atmosphere. China has announced that it will ban production of petrol and diesel cars in the nearest future, likewise other developed countries, likely to adopt the same.
Perhaps, Nigeria could adopt similar measures in the nearest future to put an end to air, noise and water pollution, and maintain good environmental atmosphere. Some parts of the oil producing communities in Nigeria have been deprived of good environment by the various oil companies drilling oil from their areas, and the government does nothing about it.
Air pollution (black soot); the effects usually depend on the length of time of exposure as well as the kind and concentration of chemicals and particles that contaminate it.
Air pollution (black soot); short-term effects are irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, upper respiratory infections like bronchitis, pneumonitis and eye inflammation like conjunctivitis. Other effects are headaches, nausea, anorexia, allergic skin reaction, and aggravation of medical condition in individuals with asthma, and emphysema.
Air pollution (black soot); long-term effects are chronic cardiopulmonary disease. Air pollution is mostly carcinogenic and living in highly polluted areas put people at risk of skin and lung cancer, as well as damage to the brain, nerves, liver, and kidneys in newborns.
The major causes of contamination of air that result to pollution, mostly black soot are through heavy smock via oil companies, illegal refineries and burning of tyres
Niger Delta remains a case study of oil producing states – Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo, Osun, Abia and Imo. And major oil drilling in the South-South States, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo and Bayelsa, it means that millions of people living in these oil producing states will be affected by these short-term and long-term air pollutions? It is so pathetic, because lives-span here are short.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, people have been living on risk and fear of black soot over the past two years, due to heavily emitted flame caused by International Oil Companies (IOCs) and illegal refineries bunkering aka kpoo-fire, local drilling of crude oil and refining to produce kerosene, diesel and fuel. A People involved on illegal refineries does not think of posterity, both in the safety of their lives, environment and atmosphere; this pictures below perhaps will explain more…
Does the government at federal and state levels take drastic step to stop these people from their illegal refineries and checkmate the flame channel of international oil producing companies? The answer is no! Because it started two years ago, and nothing has been done, rather soot keep generating more and more.
This simple orientation should educate us on what black soot is. It causes air pollutions that destroy our agriculture, farmland, water, livestock and expose our lives to carbon monoxide, leads to blood carboxyhaemoglobin levels in the range of 3 per cent to 10 per cent, the effect would reduce work capacity in healthy young adults, aggravate angina symptoms during exercise, and impair mental vigilance. High levels would cause headaches, dizziness, fibrinolysis, and death. And in pregnant women, it reduces fetal birth weight and causes poor developmental milestone in the index child.
Dr. Okwelum further highlighted that the danger in contaminated air is that it can poison the human body via major source such as food and drink.
The environment and its atmosphere, significantly air and water are important source of living. Air we breathe and water we drank is vital to human survival, as every living thing need (clean) water to drink. We fish in rivers, and do other things in it. Water is a precious resource that can be easily polluted, and cause amebiasis, typhoid fever, severe gastroenteritis like cholera and all forms of diarrhea disease.
An urgent intervention is needed from local and international communities, medical experts for advice on good health and medication to the people. Nigeria government and its agencies both at the state level should put an end to illegal refineries (bunkeries) kpoo-fire, as it is called in Port Harcourt, and checkmate the operations of International Oil Companies (IOCs), compel them to clean-up the spill of oil that is destroying our environment in the various oil producing states and their communities. That would perhaps minimize the danger inherent in black soot and safe lives of poor citizens residing in Rivers State nay Niger Delta region.
