THE IMPLICATIONS OF AIR POLLUTION ON HUMAN HEALTH IN UYO (A CASE STUDY OF UYO-URBAN)
CHAPTER ONE
- BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Environment is an important resource that provides livelihood and comfort to man. From the creation, environment remains indispensable to the existence and continuity of lives be it aquatic or terrestrial. This holds true because of the fact that, every living organism breath, eat, engage into some form of recreation and generally, survive through adaptation to the environmental conditions. That is why, paying special attention to environment becomes indispensable, because without it life becomes unbearable.
The environmental degradation occasioned by the socio-economic and industrial activities of man caused great concern to all. Prior to 18th century, cases of environmental problems were scarcely or seldomly featured in the world political, social and economic discourse. This was because, human activities were limited to trade and commerce, agriculture with simply technology. The world then hard rarely made use of combustible steam engine for human survival although it may have been on the experimental stage but it was not at the scale after industrial revolution of 18th century. Thus, the live was simple, no pollution and man was not exposed to danger apart from war of conquest and minor diseases.
The period of industrial revolution in the 18th century brought a new face of survival and socio-economic challenges. This is the period where human existence was beginning to completely tied to machine. The function and utilization capacity of machines necessitated the invention of turbine which became inevitable to the survival evolution of man. This indeed marked the beginning of environmental pollution, with serious consequence on human health.
In this era of man’s civilization, virtually every aspect of human comfort was closely knit to steam engine (turbine) and they include: electricity generation, production, exploration of natural resources, agriculture, commerce and transportation etc.
The pollution caused by industrial revolution in the world, particularly air constitute threat to live as carbon iv oxide Co2, Carbon ii oxide Co etc, discharge into atmosphere impose negative effect to lungs and respiratory tract. The incomplete combustion of gas in either automobile or internal combustion of steam engine caused some forms of diseases such as brain damages and headache – globally.
However, in Nigeria, cases of environmental degradation as a result of human activities are featuring prominently in Niger Delta region and cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt.
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