Hazardous Effects of Petrochemical Industries: A Review

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Levels In Wistar Rats Exposed To Ambient Air Of Port Harcourt, Nigeria: An Indicator For Tissue Toxicity

“…The study ndings explain and implicate previous reports on increased trends of selected mortality and morbidity associated with particulate matter pollution in Port Harcourt between 2016 and 2018 as well as an upsurge in health burden [20,23]. Similarly, the result also proves that the risk of toxicity, carcinogenicity, and mutagenicity due to high concentrations of PAHs are likely higher in inhabitants living in hydrocarbon industrial polluted environments than those in non-hydrocarbon industrial areas [5,44,54,62,84,[102][103][104]. [17,23].…”

“…High amounts of ne particulate matter in indoor and outdoor environs noted in the study were similar to those found in highly petroleum-based industrial areas [23][24][25][26][27][62][63][64]. The observed increase in particulate matter is most likely responsible for the relative upsurge in trends of morbidity and mortality recorded over the years in Port Harcourt, con rming reports from previous studies [19,20,62], as toxicity and mortality, cancers, upsurge in respiratory, cardiovascular, and renal dysfunctions resulting from exposure to particulate matter bonded with PAHs have been reported in a plethora of epidemiological studies [47,65,44]. Although the ration of PM 10 and PM 2.5 have not been studied for atmospheric particulate matter of Port Harcourt, studies have implicated infants and children being at risk of ne aerodynamic particulates [22,66].…”

“…3 and 4) implicating a relatively clean air in the University of Nigeria Nsukka, where the experimental animals were imported from for the study assessment. This suggests that people in non-hydrocarbon and petroleum-free environments are at lower risk of cancers and general tissue toxicity compared to residents inhaling air polluted with PAHs bonded particulate matter due to petroleum and hydrocarbon related industrial activities [61][62][63][64][65][66][67]. Also, the continuous inhalation of PAHs bounded particulate increases the concentrations of these compounds in the tissues, enabling toxicity through oxidative stress, in ammation, and DNA methylation [5,48].…”

“…PAHs poses dangers to residents of Port Harcourt, as continuous exposures to outdoor and indoor air polluted with PAHs resulting from petroleum industrial activities likely to increase cases of cancers [59,62,92] and deformities, especially in pregnant women, infants and children and obese persons [20,62].…”

“…Toxicity resulting in high incidences of deaths and cancers of several types and at different tissue locations have been documented in places with exposure to carcinogenic PAHs in petroleum industrial ecology [17,62,[105][106][107][108][109]. The death of seven outdoor experimental rats before the end of 90days study period, loss of weight, and change in skin color of exposed animals noted in the study remain a concern and the likelihood of such effects on human inhabitants is most probable [17,23,62,107,109]. And interactions of PAHs with tissues have been found to results in cancers and mortality, [109].…”