A research findings has revealed that carbon emission from generators contribute majorly to the high increase of cancers in Nigeria, and other countries.
Meanwhile, a nurse oncologist at the National Hospital, Abuja, Jane Agabi, told LEADERSHIP that cancer cases are increasing on a daily basis in the country, as up to 90 cases are being diagnosed on the hospital’s clinic days.
According to Agabi, cancer is about to surpass HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria as 26 females die of cervical cancer and 40 women die of cancer of the breast, including deaths from prostate cancer on a daily basis.
The report which was disclosed yesterday in Abuja, in an international conference on “Mathematical Modeling’ organized by the National Mathematical Centre, Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) and Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS’).
Speaking to journalists, the director and chief executive, National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Prof Adewale Solarin, said the report says that fumes from generators are responsible for the high increase in cancer because they are carcinogenic
He explained, “If you have for instance, a whole village or a whole town, electricity is generated from one source and its distributed to everywhere, then you can control the pollution from that point but now, its virtually every building that you have generators and this is causing a lot of pollution.
“That’s one of the reasons that we have to now find ways of actually controlling carbon emission from the various causes as it is no longer from cars only. You see every building with 20 families, using generators with carbon monoxide being emitted into the atmosphere. This is one of the findings of the report.”
The NMC chief executive said the research is an international programme with many countries participating; Nigeria, Tanzania, Morocco, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Jamaica.
“Everybody is coming together with their reports. But the findings all attain to the fact that remission of gases into the atmosphere is causing pollution which is responsible for , apart from the issue of global warming, but of health issues, including proliferation of cancer.”
The executive director, COMSATS, Dr Imtinan Qureshi explained that Mathematical Modeling has many applications in scientific and technological fields having direct relevance to socio-economic development, including physics, biology, chemistry, meteorology, geo-sciences, various engineering disciplines, medicine, space sciences, transportation, economics, etc.
He expressed confidence that the international conference would facilitate scientific and technological cooperation among the participating scientists belonging to various developing countries, and enhance their capabilities to address challenges related to environmental protection and health.
The research papers presented during the two-day conference pertained to the applications of mathematical modeling in two areas which include, environmental protection and health and ecological risk assessment.
He added that cooperation between COMSATS and ISESCO dates back to 2004, which includes joint activities in various field of science and technology.
According to him, the two organizations have recently launched a joint Research Grant Scheme for supporting the activities of young scientists and researchers in the developing countries.
“I am pleased to inform that the joint research project being executed on Mathematical Modeling, entitled ‘Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of Air and Water Pollution: Effects and Remedies’ has been selected for sponsorship under the scheme.
