Babies in Nigeria are twice as likely to die in the first month of life if their mothers were living near an oil spill before falling pregnant, researchers have found.

Crucially, oil spills that occurred while the mother was still pregnant had no effect on child or neonatal mortality. But even spills that happened five years before conception doubled the neonatal mortality rate from 38
deaths to 76 deaths for every 1,000 births, the data found.

“The results from the study are absolutely shocking,” said Roland Hodler, an economics professor from the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, who led the study. “I didn’t expect to see this effect on pre-conception. Why we don’t find a stronger effect [on the foetus] during the pregnancy is not entirely clear – maybe it is due to the cumulative contamination of crude oil in the water and
soil, which increases over time. But that doesn’t explain the entire effect.

“This is a tragedy. Even four to five years prior to conception, an oil spill still matters. I think this should be seen as a first-world problem for something to be done.”

Regular, uncontrolled spills have been aprominent feature of Nigeria’s oil industry – the nation’s primary source of GDP – since crude was discovered there more than 60 years ago. An estimated 240,000 barrels of
crude oil are spilled in the Niger Delta every year, polluting waterways, contaminating crops, and releasing toxic chemicals into the air.

Unborn and newborn infants are most vulnerable to oil-related pollution because they have not yet developed basic defences such as the blood-brain barrier, which helps protect against toxic chemicals, the study found. Even small doses of pollution are likely to be large in comparison to an infant’s body weight, while mothers who ingest poisoned food or contaminated water are also at greater risk of maternal malnutrition and sickness, potentially increasing infant mortality risks, said the researchers.

The Nigerian government did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Activists have called the findings “disturbing and disheartening”.

“It is shocking to consider how many children may have died in the past 50 years – since oil exploration started in Nigeria’s Niger Delta – as a direct result of regular and uncontrolled oil spills,” said Debbie Ariyo of Africans United Against Child Abuse.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/nov/06/niger-delta-oil-spills-linked-infant-deaths

Nigerian Government will never RESPOND to the bitter truth of a dark secret they have been hiding. When the people stand up for themselves they are accused of rebellion or called terrorist and murdered in cold blood.

Even the judiciary have its own short coming, they lack independence and neutrality, with the links between the judiciary and the government visible for all to see. For example the legal cases against IPOB LEADER contain so many irregularities that it is difficult to believe that the accused can rely on any formal guarantees.

A day will come when one man will demand justice for all of us.

A day will come when we will take the fight to the government and this evil country will be destroyed

kick:
Nigerian Government will never RESPOND to the bitter truth of a dark secret they have been hiding. When the people stand up for themselves they are accused of rebellion or called terrorist and murdered in cold blood.

Even the judiciary have its own short coming, they lack independence and neutrality, with the links between the judiciary and the government visible for all to see. For example the legal cases against IPOB LEADER contain so many irregularities that it is difficult to believe that the accused can rely on any formal guarantees.

A day will come when one man will demand justice for all of us.

A day will come when we will take the fight to the government and this evil country will be destroyed

What baffles me most was Edwin Crook and Nigeria Government signed $1billion clean up 18 months ago. Not a single dime have been spent on that region. Seems this clean up will take a century. By then the Niger Delta's will be unreproducible. Let's see what avengers have to offer.