Another health hazard

The health of contemporary Nigerians appears to be increasingly under direct threat from food and environment. While still trying to recoverfrom the psychological upset suffered from a recent newspaper investigation which revealed that most of the fruits sold in Nigerian markets are harmful to human healthbecause of the calcium carbide contents in them, Nigerian were again alerted of the potential threats that confront them from plastic pollution. The Daily Trust newspaper in its Monday April 19, 2018 editionhad published a front page reportdisclosinghow mango, banana, plantain and other fruits cause terminal illnesses through artificial ripening of the fruits using calcium carbide. The report said that consumers of such fruits are at the high risk of developing cancer, kidney and heart diseases.

Our discourse this week, which is a consequence of some disturbing reflections on the 2018 World Earth Day, focuses on plastic wastes. Nigeria recently joined over 190 other countries to celebrate the World Earth Day. Activities were organized to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22. In 1968, Morton Hilbert and the United States Public Health Service organized the Human Ecology Symposium; an environmental conference for students to hear from scientists about the effects of environmental degradation on human health. This was the beginning of the Earth Day, which after two years, culminated in the first Earth Day.

“End Plastic Pollution” was the theme of the 2018 earth Day observed on April 22. In a statement issued in Abuja to mark this year’s Earth Day, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril, who spoke through his media aide Esther Agbarakwe, urged Nigerians to “celebrate the planet and also take action to protect it by ending plastic pollution”. He declared that plastic pollution is poisoning our oceans and land, injuring marine life, and affecting our life. According to the minister, government is exploring the possibility of banning plastic bags with availability of alternatives.

The Minister disclosed that in 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic waste; while in 2016, a global population of over 7 billion produced over 300 million tons of plastic waste; adding that plastic pollution is now an ever present challenge. He said plastics now float in our rivers, lagoons and oceans. He further hinted that the federal ministry of environment is at present developing a national policy on plastic waste management. He also said the federal government is collaborating with states to establish plastic wastes recycling plants under the community-based waste management programme of the ministry. He announced that eight recycling plants have already been completed and handed over to their respective states of location while 18 others are at various stages of completion.

Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic products in the environment which adversely affect not only humans and but also animals and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are broadly categorized into micro and macro-debris, based on size. Because plastics are cheap and durable, there is high prevalence of plastic pollution among mankind. The main trouble with most plastics is that their chemical structure renders them resistant to many natural processes of degradation, and as a result, slows down theirdecay.Combined together, these factors have led to high prevalence of plastic pollution in today’s human environment.The deposit and distribution of plastic debris depends on factors that include wind and ocean currents, urbanization and trade routes. Human population plays prominent role in plastic waste build up.

Chlorinated plastic can release harmful chemicals to the surrounding soil which can seep in to groundwater or other surrounding water sources. Every life, human or animal, that drinks from such affected water sources stand the risk of getting infected with diseases. If anything, these details bring to light the extent to which Nigerians are exposed to the harmful effects of plastic pollution. This is more so, given the proliferation of boreholes, which in the past few decades, have become the main source of drinkable water in most Nigerian communities. This is besides the huge plastic wastes thataccrue daily in cities and towns due to a kind of lifestyle orchestrated by modernity on contemporary men and women.

As regards plastics in oceans, it was estimated in 2012 that there was approximately 165 million tons of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. Plastic bags, food containers and polystyrene pieces have been identified as the most common types of plastic pollution in oceans because they altogether make up the majority of oceanic debris. These plastic litters in the oceans are directly toxic to marine life and indirectly to human beings who, through food chain, ingest these highly toxic substances. Specialists among health workershave warned that these toxins can cause cancer, immune disorder and birth defects. 

Beyond the wind, soil, underground water and oceans that are polluted with plastics which all endanger human life is also the share of air in plastic pollution. Burning of plastic wastes in the open pollutes the environment due to the release of poisonous chemicals into the atmosphere. The polluted air, when inhaled by humans and animals, affects their health and could cause respiratory disorders. 

For now, contemporaryNigerians would seem to bebetween“the lion and the deep blue sea” as no realistic option practically existsfor them to make any “tactical maneuver”through plastic wastes because bottled water and snacks we frequently take are all packaged in plastics. If we can avoid consuming fruits poisoned with calcium carbide, we cannot avoid inhaling air or eating fish polluted with plastics or plastic waste. A lasting feasible solution to reducing the health threats from plastic wastes is recycling. While we encourage the establishment of recycling plants as many as could cope with the mass of plastic wastes produced in the country, we also encourage government at all levels to sensitize people to engage in practices that seek to reduce plastic waste at every level.