Petroleum Pollution and Decrease Neuroplasticity in Brain Development of the Ogoni Children in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Health and mental related illnesses has emerged as a new challenge in the rural and undeveloped areas in Ogoniland where petroleum exploration activities have devastated the entire ecosystem. Many of the school children are no longer zealous about their academic activities, as their performances in school are always very poor. It has been reported that the children’s poor performance in school is closely linked with several health and mental challenges suffered by these children in the highly polluted areas.
 Methods: The study comprises of 383 primary school teachers selected from 8 rural communities in the four (4) Ogoni Local Government Areas (Gokana, Tai, Eleme and Khana) in Rivers State where massive environmental pollution has been reported. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data from the teachers on the children’s exposure to oil pollution; self-rated mental illnesses and behavioural symptoms among the school children, perception to petroleum pollution and mental illnesses.
 Results: The results revealed that the signs of mental illnesses like anxiety disorder, attention-deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorder, mood disorder, schizophrenia and eating disorder were noticeable among the school children. The children also exhibited behavioural challenges such as extreme fear, difficulty in concentrating, self-imposed injuries, aggressive behaviour, avoiding other classmates and poor academic performances. The field survey further revealed that mental illnesses and behavioural challenges were common in areas of massive petroleum pollution of the environment. Other causes of these illnesses were revealed to be poverty and psychoactive substance use.
 Conclusion: It was concluded that constant exposures of the children to environmental pollution is associated with decreasing neuroplasticity of the brain.

Curbing Human Activities That Degrade the Environment: The Relevance of Environmental Adult Education

“…Agriculture has been known to produce significant effect on climate change primarily through the production and release of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide [44]. Also a form of agriculture that practises tillage, fertilization, and pesticide application also releases ammonia nitrate, phosphorus and many others pesticides that affect air, water, and soil quality as well as biodiversity [45,46].…”

Distribution of Respiratory Tract Infectious Diseases in Relation to Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Concentration in Selected Urban Centres in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

“…Unfortunately, the atmosphere also contains pollutants which affect health [8] . Pollution is generally the introduction by mankind into the environment substances liable to cause hazards to human health, harm to the living organism and ecological system [1,9] , damage to structure or interfere with the legitimate uses of the environment [32,34,35] . Air pollution is on the increase especially in highly urbanized and industrialized cities [4,16,25] .…”

“…The health effect of air pollution on humans includes carcinogenicity, pulmonary tuberculosis, cerebrospinal meningitis, pneumonia, whooping cough and measles [8,9] . Particulate Matter can also comprise toxic pollutants, such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and other particle-bound organic compounds, which may be responsible for activating local lung damage particularly when the particles deposit on the epithelial surfaces [24] .…”

“…One of the major environmental problems facing the Niger Delta area is air pollution consequent on the complex industrial activities such as oil and gas exploitation and flaring [5,25] . There have been complaints by the city dwellers about black particles settling on their cars and black dirt in their nostrils when cleaned up with handkerchief in which cloths got stained, and high rate of respiratory problems leading to wheezing and sneezing [9,10] . The rapid rate of urbanization in the Niger Delta Region through various activities such as industrialization, on-going construction works and vehicular movements have led to the constant discharge of dangerous pollutants into the atmosphere without taking proper protection and good operational methods as approved by the relevant authorities [4,15] .…”

Vulnerability of Local Communities to Oil Installation in Isoko Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria

“…The Niger Delta is among the ten most important wetlands and marine ecosystems in the world [10]. The oil industries located within this region has also contributed immensely to the growth and development of the country, which is a fact that cannot be disputed [11], but unsustainable oil exploration activities has rendered the Niger Delta region, to be one of the five most severely petroleum damaged ecosystems in the world [12,11]. Studies have shown that the quantity of oil spilled over the last 50 years in Nigeria was a least 9-13 million barrels, which is equivalent to 50 Exxon Valdez spills [6,13].…”