- As black soot falls over P/Harcourt since November
Over six million residents of oil-rich Rivers State are on the verge of contracting a deadly respiratory disease, known as Pneumoconiosis, if the activities causing black soot to fall from the sky in Port Harcourt, the state capital, are not halted.
The strange black soot, which according to residents, had been falling from the sky in Port Harcourt metropolis since November last year, had become a source of worry to many.
According to the American Lung Association, Pneumoconiosis is a general term given to any lung disease caused by dusts that are breathed in and then deposited deep in the lungs, causing damage.
Pneumoconiosis is usually considered an occupational lung disease, because exposure to the dusts that can cause the disease often occurs in the workplace. Exposure to asbestos, silica and coal dust is the most common cause of pneumoconiosis.
There is no cure for pneumoconiosis, but it can be prevented with appropriate respiratory protection. The dust particles remain in the lung where they can cause inflammation or fibrosis (scarring).
The effects of damage from inhaled mineral dusts may not show up for many years; so, patients may not develop symptoms until long after they are no longer exposed to these dusts.
Preventing inhalation of harmful dusts make pneumoconiosis a preventable disease. An American-based medical practitioner, Dr. Oluwadamilare Ajayi, said that the black soot falling from the sky could be as a result of illegal activities of some petrochemical industries, releasing their toxic wastes into the atmosphere, thereby polluting the environment.
Ajayi said when these mineral dusts are inhaled, the particles could deposit in the airways called the bronchial tubes, or all the way in the air sacs that are deep in the lungs.
He added that when the dust particles land and settle in the lungs and when cells from the immune system travel to these affected areas of the lungs, an inflammation develops as it tries to fight the dust particle.
This, he further said could eventually cause scar tissues to form, affecting breathing. The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Mike Ogirima, noted that pneumoconiosis can be a very severe disease which can result in death.
Ogirima noted that the severity of this disease varies widely, depending on the type of chemical inhaled, how much of the lungs is affected and the intensity of the chemical exposure.
Pneumoconiosis sometimes presents no symptoms and is diagnosed using chest X-rays or spirometry, which is a breathing test to check how well air goes in and out of the lungs.
