By Seyi Babalola
The C2REST Study Nigeria, in partnership with the Centre for 21st Century Issues, has kickstarted a medical study on the impact of climate change on the respiratory health of residents in Ogun State’s Ado-Odo/Otta LGA.
The event which was held from December 20 to 21, 2024 provided an avenue for residents of the host communities to learn more about climate change and its effects on humanity and the planet at large.
The meeting also provided an opportunity for the NGO’s leadership to get comments on climate change issues as part of its advocacy and research programs, which are anticipated to last 18 months.
The Coordinator of C2REST Study Nigeria, Dr Obianuju Ozoh, who is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, in her speech at the workshop on “Community Engagement on Climate Change and Respiratory Health” stated that: “The purpose of this workshop is to engage the community because we are planning to embark on the study where we are going to assess the health impacts of climate change, on the respiratory health of the members of this community and, to do this, we understand that it we can’t just come and begin to assess their health without them understanding the impact of climate change, what they are doing to contribute to climate change and how to also empower them to understand ways they can mitigate the impact of climate change.
“The session has been a very interactive session because the community members also have their ideas and understand some of the things that they are doing that are impacting climate change and they also have solutions and suggestions on how things can be better.”
According to Dr. Ozoh who doubles as a Consultant Pulmonologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital noted that “This study is not just to engage the community going forward. Starting from January 2025, we’re going to engage on a longitudinal study in which we are going to measure the health impact of climate change. We are going to place monitors in the community that will measure the air quality because we know that air quality is an effect of climate change and poor air quality attacks the health.
“So we measure the air quality and the community, and then we will take the community members and follow them up over a period of time to see how this air quality is impacting their respiratory health.
“In particular, we are focusing on the respiratory health because we know that when it comes to air pollution and air quality, the first contact is through the nostrils because we breathe it in.
“So, our lungs and our respiratory system is the first part of the body to be exposed to air pollution, so that’s why this study is focused on respiratory health.
“This is a three-year project. We just started in 2024, and we’re hoping to continue to work on this up to 2027. And by then we’ll be able to have some results.
“With these results we are going to come back to the community as this is not the end of our engagement here, when we get the results in the next 18 months, we hope to come back to the and share this result with them, we will tell them what the air quality in their environment is.
“By then, we will be able to tell them how it’s affecting their health with that information. After which they will be empowered and are able to go back to their leaders and demand good air quality,” Dr. Ozoh stated.
In her remarks, Dr. Tolu Babatope emphasized the importance of educating community members about the harmful health effects of climate change.
Dr. Babatope, a medical doctor with Lagos State Ministry of Health, stated that “we want the communities to understand the role that they play in this issue of air pollution. For instance, when people burn refuse and then cook with their materials like charcoal and firewood, these contribute to the air pollution.
“We want the people in the community to know that they also have a role to play in ensuring that they keep the air that they breathe in clean.
“And there is a need for us to talk to the government about the issue of air pollution but, before we go ahead and talk about it, we need to present the government with adequate evidence. That’s the essence of this community engagement.”
Speaking also during the program, The Executive Director, Centre for 21st Century Issues, Ms. Titilope Ngozi Akosa, said: “We are collaborating with C2Rest on this research work on climate change and respiratory health in Nigeria in order to ensure provision of good quality air for people of the grassroots.”
On why the choice of Sango and Atan Ota in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, Ms. Akosa said: “The choice of this location is because it’s a community and that we believe that it is in the local community that we understand the sources of pollution in the air.
“Also, there are several communities that we will have gone, but we wanted to look at these communities because of the large concentration of commercial activities there.
“Our engagement with these communities has opened our eyes to different sources of air pollution in the community apart from the one that is caused by climate change.
“There is also an understanding of what climate change is all about and how pollution in terms of emission from different activities in the community can contribute to climate change and how that also affected respiratory diseases among the people.”
The C2Rest Study is being led by researchers in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, with Principal Investigators from Teesside University and the University of Lagos.
The study is designed to provide light on the relationship between climate change, air quality, and respiratory health, providing actionable data to enhance public health in Nigeria’s grassroots communities.