Background and Objective: Carnage on roads is a growing concern in Nigeria. Over 27 persons, equivalent to more than 4 families, die daily from road traffic crashes. Two direct factors of a road crash are road quality and vehicle quality. To interrogate and compare both factors to road traffic accidents, the longitudinal study regressed secondary data on death tolls against road quality and vehicle quality. Materials and Methods: Data on the estimated number of vehicles imported into Nigeria (1992-2021) served as the indicator of vehicle quality on Nigerian roads. The longitudinal study regressed secondary data on death tolls (2013-2019) against road quality (2006-2019) and vehicle quality (1992-2021). Results: Results showed that road quality is degenerating as well as vehicle quality in Nigeria, resulting in increases in the number of road traffic crashes and the attendant death tolls. For every 1% decrease in road quality, death tolls from road traffic crashes in Nigeria increased by 0.00642% at 5% significance, and for every decrease in vehicle quality, death tolls from road traffic crashes in Nigeria increased by 0.327% at 5% significance. Conclusion: The study recommended increased advocacy on the sanctity of life and the need for the federal, state and local governments to prioritize policy and implementation of improving the road quality and vehicle quality to reduce road traffic crashes and save lives on Nigerian roads.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Targets 12.4 and 3.9 aim to reduce deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and to achieve environmentally friendly management of chemical and wastes. Electronic wastes, which contain hazardous chemicals, are rapidly generated in poor countries due to demand for affordable near-end-of-life internet-enabled gadgets that soon wear out and are improperly disposed due to ignorance, throw-away mentality and dearth of waste management infrastructure. This study identified hazardous chemicals contained in significant quantities in e-waste items, described their public health challenges and suggested mitigation measures. Results showed that mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cadmium, lead and beryllium oxide were hazardous chemicals contained in significant quantities in e-waste items. The study recommended the formulation of appropriate environmental health education technology policy (AEHETP) to guide stakeholders to design education, preventive, therapeutic and decontamination plans for awareness creation and raising to address the toxic effects of e-waste items on users in poor countries.

The University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria is rapidly developing and expanding in spatial size, thus, leading to upsurge in population of staff, students, business owners and visitors. Consequently, there is the growing concern that with the current state of perennial buildup of traffic along the main entry and exit routes of the main campus; occurrence of major mobility crises, especially during the traffic peak-hours is only a matter of time. To make for better understanding and appreciation of the current traffic conditions, the precariousness of the near future and to recommend appropriate measures towards arresting the situation, this study became necessary. The paper evaluates the traffic characteristics of the study area using such temporal parameters as traffic volume, on/off peak traffic periods and traffic flow rate for 5 work-days of the week. For the traffic flow rate, the study revealed high volume of traffic within 1.5 kilometers network. This gave the average values of 8.8, 8.5, 8.2, 6.8 and 8.1 vehicles per minute in a 5-day count, for the morning peak-hour, between 8 and 9am. Similarly, evening peak-hour (4-5 pm) gave the average values of 5.8, 5.4, 5.1, 4.9 and 6.2 per minute. Fleet size was an average of 245 vehicles per day. The geometric features of the road networks, traffic volume and fleet size invariably contribute to the perennial gridlock at peak-hours. Values were obtained through the Gordon line traffic survey carried out on the five work-days of the week, consecutively.

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