THE CHALLENGE OF LEAD POISONING

Time to challenge illegal miners as they constitute grave danger to society

Some 28 children from Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State died recently as a result of lead poisoning. The deaths, according to the federal government, were caused by the activities of illegal miners. What makes the tragedy so unfortunate was the revelation by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Musa Sada, that most of the people who invaded the mining sites were the same artisanal miners who were driven away from Zamfara State in 2010 after a similar incident led to the death of 163 people, including 111 children.

Evidently, repeated scenes of funerals and the vulnerability of those living in many communities due to illegal mining activities, have not acted as deterrence. The people are either impervious to the growing tragedy or simply living in denial in many of the communities in some northern states.

Not long ago, nine illegal miners of gold were buried beneath the earth when a mine pit collapsed on them at Dogon Daji village in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State. There would have been no trace of them except for the fact that there was a lone survivor who was partly buried and had to be subsequently rescued.

But the authorities should take the blame for the state of affairs. In the absence of any strict mining regulations, many of the inhabitants often pour into the fields to help themselves and in so doing, endanger their lives and that of others, particularly children. Yet even more worrisome is the growing feeling that there is no solution in sight.

The menace of lead poisoning, due principally to the activities of illegal miners had been headlined many times over. Mary Jean Brown, the chief Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch, Centres for Disease Control and

THE GOVERNMENT, AT ALL LEVELS, MUST RISE UP TO THE OCCASION AND MITIGATE THE EFFECT OF LEAD POISONING. THE BEST BET IS CREATING AWARENESS AMONG THE VARIOUS PUBLICS

Prevention, Atlanta, USA, said three years ago that lead poisoning was closer to every home in Nigeria than realised. She was in Nigeria to assess the extent of lead contamination. She said there was so much lead in the air, on water and at homes. More troubling is the disclosure that most of the miners are themselves carriers of death by taking home their dusty clothes and shoes which are contaminated with lead, and which their innocent children inhale to their peril.

Lead is colourless, odourless and tasteless, making it an insidious killer. Besides death, the short-term effects of lead poisoning include acute fever, convulsion, loss of consciousness and blindness, while the long-term effects include anaemia, renal failure and brain damage in children, who are often the main victims. Many of them are left with severe handicaps like some form of paralysis while others are afflicted with severe mental retardation and other health disorders.

This phenomenon indeed poses a clear and present danger to Nigerians not only because of the unregulated activities of illegal miners and the inability of the relevant authorities to rein them in but also because the menace indeed is everywhere. While it is widely assumed that lead poisoning is a sequestered occurrence in some remote villages in north-central Nigeria, or at worst in illegal gold-mining communities, it could indeed take place in virtually every home and, more frighteningly, even in schools.

This is therefore the time for the government, at all levels, to rise up to the occasion and mitigate the effect of lead poisoning. The best bet is creating awareness among the various publics: manufacturers of affected products, consumers of the products, parents and guardians as well as miners.

There is need, finally, for the government to commit more resources to research into this problem. Since the potential of lead poisoning is so strong and all of its effects are not yet established, Nigerian researchers should strive to establish if there is any link between it and the rising incidence of cancer about which there has been growing concern lately.