Dr. Theodore Allison, a renowned Environmental Histologist has warned that except remediation measures are taken to control environmental degradation in some communities in Rivers state, the people risk developing cancer.
Dr. Allison gave the warning while speaking on the topic: ” Histology As An Indispensable Public Health Tool in Determining The Certification And Stratification of Niger Delta Environmental Status, at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) College of Health Sciences, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Anatomy monthly seminar, which was held at Anatomy building, Abuja campus, UNIPORT, PortHarcourt.
He identified the communities most likely to have the consequences as Ekerekana and Okochiri in Okrika local government area. Also, Choba, Ogbogoro, and Iwofe in the Obio-Akpor local government area of the state.
He said at Okochiri 8.9 and Ekerekana 8.0 out of ten thousand people of the population would have cancer. While, at Choba 2.4, Ogbogoro 1.3 and Iwofe 1.8 out of ten thousand people of the population would be affected by the disease.
He disclosed that a sample of air, water, sediment, soil, plant, and animal tissues done in these communities shows that they contain Nickel, Arsenic, which is cancer-causing agents.
He said the sample shows that many of the Rivers there have been contaminated.
He listed discharge of refinery waste, human and industrial activities at the Rivers Basin, fishing and dredging activities, human waste disposal, abbatoir, Indomie company effluent discharge at Choba, and Eagle cement factory at Iwofe as cause agents.
” Port Harcourt Refinery Company(PHRC) is polluting the river channel of Ekerekana and Okochiri. The people are subsistent fishers, hence their livelihood and health are threatened through their sourcing of protein from these rivers”
” Bio-indicator fish was not suitable for consumption at the period of the study”.
“NCR was determined not to be polluted but Poly-aromatic hydrocarbon(PAH), which is a very potent carcinogen was a cause of serious public health concern and fish advisory was thus inevitable”, he stated.
The expert recommended that air quality assessment, environmental auditing of PHRC effluent and treatment system as well as a review of its waste management system should be done.
Other recommendations according to him were; forensic analysis of PAH, fish edibility advisory, and environmental audit of NCR.
