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A Comparative Study on Cardio-pulmonary Markers in Gas Flaring Communities, South-South Nigeria

Abstract

Ovuakporaye SI, Enaohwo MT, Odigie OM and Igweh JC

As health implications of frequent and/or inadvertent exposure to poor quality air rises in humans, studies have ranked Nigeria with highest incidences of natural gas flaring across the globe; asserting her to contribute about 46% of overall gas flaring in Africa. With numerous known flaring sites within the country, this study compares markers of cardiovascular and respiratory functions in residents of Oben, Oshi, Ibeno, Ogbia and Agbaro-Otor Communities; common flaring sites within the Niger Delta States of Edo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Delta; south-south Nigeria respectively. A stratified random sampling technique was used to ethically recruit one thousand and eight (1008) participants from across selected communities. Following gender-sorting and obtaining of socio-demographic records (by a questionnaire) of subjects, cardiovascular and respiratory variables (respiratory rates, peak expiratory flow rate, pulse rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures) were obtained and compared between communities, depending on duration of exposure to gas flaring. With p-value set at .05, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) proved that prolonged exposure to gas flaring increased mean blood pressure with a decreased mean peak expiratory flow rate across sampled communities. Gender-dependent variation was also seen to vary across communities, implying that gas flaring impact is gender and duration dependent. Similar, but more sophisticated approach is recommended for other areas in Nigeria with high incidences of gas flaring.