recently, the entire global community was thrown into confusion when the international health body, WHO, added to the ever growing list of foods that are carcinogenic - foods that have the tendency to cause cancer in human beings.
The state of Nigeria’s power infrastructure has created an environmental nightmare across the country. The director and chief executive, National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Professor Adewale Solarin, disclosed recently that there is a scary link between generator fumes and the high incidence of cancer in Nigeria. “If you have for instance, a whole village or a whole town, where electricity is generated from one source and it is distributed everywhere, then you can control the pollution from that point”, said Solarin. “But it’s virtually every building that you have generators and this is causing a lot of pollution.”
Indeed, the worry is that there is hardly a household or an office, particularly in the urban centres, that does not have a power generating set. Given the epileptic nature of the power sector, generators have become a necessity at homes and offices alike. Yet carbon monoxide emitted from this power source has been established to be a silent killer and has accounted for the death of several people, including in some cases, entire families. So bad is the situation that in some houses or office premises, there could be as many as 10 generating sets within a radius of five metres.
A toxicologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Dr. Olatunji Ekemode, last year also raised an alarm over the growing number of recorded deaths in our country that are traceable to carbon monoxide inhalation due to the use of generators in badly ventilated environments. “Generator fumes can be deadly when inhaled, as carbon monoxide replaces oxygen in the body tissues. When oxygen is displaced in the body, it prevents blood from carrying out its functions, including transporting oxygen around the body. This situation can lead to death,” he said. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said repeatedly that diesel exhaust fumes are major causes of lung cancer and increased risk of bladder cancer.
Only recently, the entire global community was thrown into confusion when the international health body, WHO, added to the ever growing list of foods that are carcogenic - foods that have the tendency to cause cancer in human beings. The report from the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said there was enough evidence to rank processed meat as group one carcinogens because of a causal link with bowel cancer. Included in the new list are bacon, ham and sausages.
The report places red meat in a group as “probably carcinogenic to humans”. Eating red meat is also linked to pancreatic and prostate cancer, the IARC experts say before concluding that each 50-gramme (1.8-ounce) portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 per cent. “For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed,” said Dr Kurt Straif, head of the IARC monographs programme.
While the food cancer scare can perhaps be tamed largely by individual efforts and discipline, the last report has simply highlighted the helplessness of many to the dangers of regular exposure to generator or diesel fumes.
Experts advise people “to never run a generator indoors or in any area where ventilation is limited and people or animals are present.” In effect, it is always safer to put the generator outside, and away from a window, and never in an enclosed area. In addition, exhaust pipes of generators should be directed to the sky in other to avoid direct contacts with the noxious substance.
Experts advise people “to never run a generator indoors or in any area where ventilation is limited and people or animals are present.” In effect, it is always safer to put the generator outside, and away from a window, and never in an enclosed area. In addition, exhaust pipes of generators should be directed to the sky in other to avoid direct contacts with the noxious substance.
Even so, the recent report has condemned all this to mere temporary measures. Containing the increasing cancer scourge requires a holistic approach, with the government taking the lead not only in the provision of necessary physical and health infrastructure but in rallying the rest of society to necessary action.
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