Aircraft noise: Health of airport residents,
workers at risk - Experts
By Rotimi
Durojaiye,
Aviation
Correspondent, Lagos
Medical experts
have warned that people living and working within airport locations are likely
to face health hazards arising from substances used in the aviation industry,
which are said to be toxic to human body.
A survey conducted
by Daily Independent revealed that materials in the operation, maintenance
and construction of aircraft contained potential toxic substances.
Medical Director of
Global Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Dr. Michael Anifowoshe, said the route by which
a toxic material is absorbed into the body is mainly through the respiratory
system.
He also listed
other possible routes of absorption as the skin and gastrointestinal contract.
Anifowoshe pointed
out that many of the toxic gases cause irritation on the eye and mucous
membrane and mental impairment.
He warned that
unless adequate medical treatments were sought, people living very close to the
airports and those on ground at the tarmac risked various health consequences.
Another medical
expert, Dr. Labi Olujinmi, identified some common noxious gases/vapour
encountered in aircraft as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide,
hydrogen, cyanide, formic acid, acetic acid, ammonia, phenols, benzene and
aldehydes.
All the chemicals,
according to him, “are very dangerous to health”.
Olujinmi, who is a
private medical practitioner, said the substances used in aircraft structure
contained potential toxic hazard of fire and were complex.
He said airline
operators must take all necessary actions to prevent leakage of contaminated
air through the closure of the air-inlet valve fitted to the oxygen regulator
and selection of a safety pressure.
The experts also
warned that it was wrong for the government to have allowed the erection of
residential buildings around the airport terminals because of the noise and
pollution effects.
While Anifowoshe
blamed the government for granting such approvals, Olujinmi argued that most of
the residents encroached on government land.
They argued that in
European countries, airports were cited far away from the cities.
They challenged the
government to sensitise the people on the dangers of living very close to
airports.
Media Assistant to
the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr. Sam
Adurogboye, rose in government’s defence, saying it was the inhabitants
that encroached on government land.
He said the
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has noticed “all the
defects at our airports” and that what the government was doing was to
avert danger.
Adurogboye listed
the erection of perimeter fence around the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos as
one of the preventive measures to avert dangers.
