By Aliyu DANLADI
Mr Wilford Jwalshik, the Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON), on Monday called for proper chemical waste management to protect the health of Nigerians.
Jwalshik said in Lagos that it was necessary to stop littering the environment with chemical waste because of the hazards involved.
Chemical waste is any type of waste that is composed of noxious and potentially hazardous chemicals.
Harmful chemicals and solvents that are the byproducts of large scale laboratories and manufacturing plants serve as the most common examples of industrial chemical waste.
The ICCON boss said that poorly-managed chemical waste could contaminate water streams, impacting plants, aquatic animals and human life.
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“Once you drink such contaminated water, the chemicals begin to accumulate in the system and today in Nigeria we don’t have laboratories that analyse for chemicals that affect the human system.
“Proper handling and disposal of chemical waste is critical for the health of citizens and environmental compliance.
“Improper dumping of chemical waste can cause a lot of hazards to our health and can encourage the spread of diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid, cancer, among others,’’ he said.
Jwalshik noted that if industries could treat their chemical waste properly before discharging them into the stream, it would reduce most of the hazards caused to the environment.
“Chemicals affect our everyday lives. They are used to produce almost everything we use from our clothes to food items, gases, cosmetics, electronic equipment and so many others.
“They are used around the world on a daily basis and occur naturally in the earth or atmosphere; others are synthetic or human-made.
“When we use and dispose of them properly, they may enhance the quality of life but when we use or dispose of them improperly, they can have harmful effects on us.
“Some hazardous waste come from our homes. Our garbage cans include such hazardous wastes as old batteries, insecticide cans, plastic cans and paint containers,’’ Jwalshik said.
The ICCON boss said that there were different sources of waste ranging from municipal to homes, schools, hospitals, agricultural, industrial or from automobiles.
He said that the components of waste found in our societies these days were becoming scientific and consisted of components known as E-waste.
Jwalshik said that waste management in Nigeria had turned out to be a serious environmental issue and urged the government to look for ways to curb the menace.
