THE FUTURE EFFECT OF BRAZIL MINE TRAGEDY ON HUMANS AND MARINE LIFES

The collapse of a dam in an iron mine few weeks ago in Brazilian state of Minas Gerais is one of the biggest environmental disaster the country have ever experienced. Waste(mud) from the dam is said to contain toxic substances like mercury, arsenic, chromium and manganese exceeding human consumption level. The mud have travelled 500km since the dam collapsed, entering into river and destroying houses. The travelling mud is said to have reached the Atlantic Ocean and this could have a devastating effect on marine life. Heavy metals present in the travelling mud may also pose a serious threat to human health. Although the mining company called Somarco said the mud isn't toxic  but biologist and environmental expert disagree. According to Aderinola et al (2009),this might cause physical and chemical changes to the receiving waters and these change may include increased dissolved nutrients which may result in eutrophication, changes in stream temperature and bottom characteristics which lead to habitat destruction and alternation of species diversity and the addition of toxic substances which can have either acute or chronic effects on aquatic organism. The mud is said to be high in silica and iron which means it will set hard as concrete when it dries up.

According to Mukherjee and Bhupander(2011) marine organism posses a remarkable capacity to turn inorganic mercury to organic compound, thus rendering mercury more easily transferable throughout the aquatic food. So the consumption of fish may constitute an important source of mercury exposure for humans in the area. And it is also established that fish and seafood can accumulate sizeable quantities of organic arsenic from their environment and this can cause cancer of lungs,liver,bladder and skin according to Jaishankar et al. Also according to Jaishankar et al(2014) exposure to higher amount of chromium compounds can lead to inhibition of erythrocyte glutathione reductase, which in turn lowers the capacity to reduce methemoglobin to haemoglobin.

Below is a video showing the severity of the disaster.

                                             Video by ODN.

Failure to control the exposure will result in severe complications in the future because of the adverse effects imposed by heavy metals.

Reference

 Aderinola O.J., Clarke E.O., Olarinmoye O.M., Kusemiju V. and Anatekhai M.A.. (2009). Heavy Metals in Surface Water, Sediments, Fish and Perwinklesof Lagos Lagoon. American-Eurasian J. Agric. & Environ. Sci. 5 (5), 609-611.
Jaishankar M., Tseten T., Anbalagan N., Mathew B.B.,and Beeregowda K.N.. (2014). Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals. Interdisciplinary Toxicology . 7 (2), 60-72.

Mukherjee D. P. and Bhupander K.. (2011). Assessment of Arsenic, Cadmium and Mercury Level in Commonly Consumed Coastal Fishes from Bay of Bengal, India . Food Science and Quality Management. 2 (2), 19-27.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WATER POLLUTION AND HUMAN HEALTH IN CHINA

The transition from a command economy to a market economy has brought tremendous changes to china .The economy high growth rate is exerting extraordinary pressure on natural     resources,particularly water. Which brought us to water pollution one of the greatest dangers to human health, afterall people can't survive without drinking water and if there freshwater resources are polluted, they can become ill from drinking them. Also fishes, birds and wildlife depends on clean water just as people do. According to Lu et al.(2008) water pollution is another trait of water resources in China, water contamination resulting from large amounts of untreated waste water discharge, has caused ecological deterioration, decling the efficiency of water sources and reducing the quantity of water use. Lu et al. also suggested that with the influx of environmental pollution the percentage of polluted water in urban areas is higher than 90%.
 I was going through my internet and i came across a news on cancer villages in China, these are villages surrounded by chemical plants or coal-fired power plants, villages with soil and water supplies that are contaminated, usually with heavy metals.These are entire village where every houses contains someone dying of cancer or some sort of respiratory problems. Below is a map of the distribution of cancer village and major river in china.

Map by environment international

Below is a table of number of cases of illness associated with the contaminated of water supplies suggested by Wu et al.

According to Lu et al.(2008) the ministry of Water Resources disclosed that the total quantity of waste water discharge across the country in 2006 amounted to 73.1 billion tons of which 2/3 was from industrial sector and 1/3 was from tertiary industry as well as urban domestic sewage. The video below highlights most of the problem faced in some of the providences in the country.

video by Tech Insider.

The critical deficits in basis water supply and sewage treatment infrastructure have increased the risk of exposure to infectious and parasitic disease and to growing volume of industrial chemicals, heavy metals and algal toxins. The degraded condition of much of China's surface water resources, together with the lack of coordination between protection of public health and Management of water quantity pose serious threat to human health.


Reference
Lu, W., Xie, S., Zhou, W., Zhang, S. and Liu, A.. (2008). Water Pollution and Health Impact in China: A Mini Review. Open Environmental Sciences journal. 2 (1), p1-5.

Wu, C., Maurer, C,. Wang, Y,. Xue, S,. and Davis, D.. (1999). Water Pollution and Human Health in China. Environmental Health Perspectives . 107 (4), 251-256

OIL SPILLAGE IN THE NIGER DELTA

      The Niger Delta area in Nigeria is situated in the gulf of Guinea between Longitude 50 E to 80 E and latitude 40 N to 60 N. It is the largest wetland in Africa and the third largest in the world consisting of flat low lying swampy terrain, that is crossed by rivers and creeks.

     

  It has been observed in recent times that the role the environment plays to a nation's development cannot be relegated to the background. The issue in Niger Delta area of Nigeria where i come from has been a problem for decades now, oil production have contaminated the the land and water in the area but neither the government nor shell corporation has taken effective measures to restore back the eco-system. According to Abudulkareem et al (2011) discharging gases, liquids, and solid waste into the environment threatens the health of the populace and damage the overall quantities of the environment by rending the farmland and water bodies unstable. 

  Also according to Ordinioha and Brisibe (2013) the wild spread constituents of crude oil in the bio-physical environment of the impacted communities are capable of exerting some acute and long-term adverse health effects on the people and animals in this area. The tables below shows some results which was carried out by Ordinioha and Brisibe (2013)

                        Table 1

                    

                         Table 2        
                    
                       Table 3
                   

In any country, this would be a national emergency, but in Nigeria it appears to be a standard operating procedure for the oil industry. The video below highlight how oil spillage in the area have affected the eco-system of the area and how the Nigeria government and Shell corp. neglected the people.

    

                             video by Amensty International

References ;
Abudulkareem,A.S, Odigure,J.O, Otaru,M.D.O, Kuranga M.B and Afolabi,A.S. (2011). Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects. A Predictive Model of Crude Oil Dispersion in Water: A Case Study of the Niger-Delta Area of Nigeria. 33 (22), p2089.
Ordinioha,B and Brisibe, S. (2013). The human health implications of crude oil spills in the Niger delta, Nigeria: An interpretation of published studies. Nigeria Medical Journal. 54 (1), p10-16.