How noise, pollution, prolonged stay in traffic impact our health
As many Nigerians battle with increasing traffic congestion, particularly in urban centres, experts say noise, pollution, and long stay in traffic is an important public health issue with negative impacts on human health.
Studies have shown that being exposed to the daily hassles of traffic can lead to higher chronic stress; similarly according a study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that one in five people are daily exposed to noise levels that could lead to ‘significant’ damage on health. This is due to the sound and noise that humans are surrounded with on daily basis. Environmental noise is among the “top environmental risks to health” and people are most affected by road traffic noise.
BusinessDay findings show excessive noise, pollution, long stay in traffic can affect blood pressure, hypertension, affects sleep pattern, fatigue, stress and heart disease which can lead to heart attack and mortality from cardiovascular diseases.
“Long stay in traffic stress can translate into deeper health hazards with both physical and mental consequences,” said Richard Adebayo, a consultant psychiatric and clinical psychologist at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.
Adebayo explained that a long hour in traffic is stressful and could cause orthopaedic problems, like back pains, leg pain which affect circulation of blood leading to deep vein thrombosis.
“It lowers effective ability of daily activities, affects sleep pattern, causes tiredness, and for those who have the tendency of developing high blood pressure, it can worsen,” he said.
Another problem is that after a bad traffic, people tend not to let it go, Adebayo says. They walk into the office and complain about their experiences, which leads to entire conversations about bad traffic and bad drivers.
“The mental consequences when stressed leads to anger, frustration and individuals can no longer tolerate, so they become impatient which tends to turn into resentment and anger, and could in turn lead to road rage.
“Spending much time in traffic affects the temperature of the scrotum in men, which may affect sperm production, and cause male infertility,” Adebayo added.
Adebayo further said that sleep deprivation can also affect performance, attention and long term memory.
“Lack of sleep can cause anxiety, exhaustion, frustration, impulsive behaviour, lower immunity and some mental health problem. It also encourages drug and alcohol use,” he said.
Oladoyin Odubanjo, chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), Lagos Chapter also said, people are exposed to high air pollution and are soaked with the fumes generated from vehicles.
“Prolonged stay in traffic leads to a sedentary lifestyle, we have to be very careful with our living condition,” he said.
In other to curb noise pollution, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has developed guidelines, based on the growing understanding of health impacts of exposure to environmental noise.
The main purpose of these guidelines is to provide recommendations for protecting human health from exposure to environmental noise originating from various sources: transportation (road traffic, railway and aircraft) noise, wind turbine noise and leisure noise.
They provide robust public health advice underpinned by evidence, which is essential to drive policy action that will protect communities from the adverse effects of noise.
Experts expect that some of the WHO guidelines can be adopted in Nigeria, in view of the health hazards posed by environmental factors such as traffic induced stress, pollution, and noise.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH