How air pollution causes infertility, birth defects

Majekodunmi Segun 

For years, it has been understood that air pollution is one of the main problem the health sector of Nigeria is facing. Its effects on humans are detrimental and hazardous. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is the disequilibrium of air caused by introduction of natural or man-made foreign elements which are injurious to humans.
This kind of pollution is generated mainly from vehicle emission, refuse and bush burning, exhaust from factories and industries, mining operations and indoor air pollution. For centuries, vehicles have offered man a level of mobility he could not have imagined by helping in the movement of people, goods and services, but in the process of doing these, it has also turned to agents that drive slow death through the dangerous fumes they emit.
As a result of this, we are being faced with aggravating problems which are increasingly affecting the health status of people in the country. A large percentage of urban air pollution is caused by vehicles. According to Dr. Emmanuel Odjadjare, a senior lecturer in the Department of Science, Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, the fume emitted by cars called car exhaust, are of different types and composition.
These fumes according to him are of different types and also perform different functions, but are effective in harming the body. Some of these fumes are carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, sulphur oxide, and hydrocarbons which are organic compound found in many places including crude oil and natural gas. One of the fumes Odjadjare listed is carbon monoxide which is a very poisonous gas that is a product of incomplete combustion of carbon.
“Naturally, we inhale oxygen as human beings, the haemoglobin transports oxygen through the body but when one inhales carbon monoxide, it displaces oxygen in the body and this limits the capacity of the blood to circulate oxygen”. He further said that as a result of the limited capacity of the blood to circulate oxygen, people tend to suffocate, “Once oxygen is not totally circulated through the body, to the brain, to the cells, to the tissues, the cells and the other parts of the body, when these parts of the body suffer from lack of oxygen for a long time, it kills the cells in those part of the body and can lead to death if not taken care of with immediate effect”.
According to Odjadjare, car exhaust pollution could also lead to defect in new born when pregnant women are exposed to high level of carcinogenic compounds, “When women who are pregnant are exposed to such chemical compounds that are carcinogenic, it could result into defect in new born babies,” he said. The fact that kids proportionately take in larger quantities of air compared to adults makes them more vulnerable to air pollution.
Children also tend to play outdoors more, engaging in sporting activities that speed up their breathing even more. Their lungs are also still developing and thus more vulnerable. Parents have to be especially vigilant about maintaining high-quality air in the house and noting days when the outside air is bad.
“For every problem, there is always a solution”, this same quote is applicable to the problem of car exhaust that the country is facing. Odjadjare who is also the president of Nigeria Young Academy said that this problem can be tackled from different perspectives.
He noted that the standard of cars imported into the country is low. “A lot of the ‘Tokunbo’ cars we buy very cheaply, are mostly cars that have been rejected as a result of their emission level, which levels has gone above the maximum set standard most of the developed world and these are what are brought down here, and we buy them cheap.”
He further said that if this issue really needs to be solved, the government must place strict regulations on the types of cars that is brought into the country, “we must be going for new cars and not just new cars, but new cars that level up to standard”. Odjadjare said, “if the government wants to address the situation, it could make sure that the kind of cars that are imported into the country meet specific emission standard that will not pollute the air.
The hazards highlighted above are corroborated in a new study which showed that air pollution and traffic fumes are tied to infertility risk. The United States (U.S) study published in the journal Human Reproduction, suggested that women who live close to major highways where the air is polluted by traffic exhaust fumes may be slightly more likely to have fertility problems than women who live further away where the air is cleaner.
Researchers followed more than 36,000 women from 1993 until 2003 and analyzed air pollution and traffic exhaust near their homes to see if what they breathed might be connected to their ability to conceive. Over the study period, there were about 2,500 reported cases of infertility. Women who lived close to a major roadway – within 199 meters, or about a tenth of a mile – were 11 percent more likely to experience this problem than women who lived farther from a highway, the study found.
“The risks are slight,” said study leader, Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, a researcher at Boston University School of Medicine. According to another researcher at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, even the slight increased risk can present a big global public health problem.