Handling Air Pollution: University Dons Sensitised

Air pollution is said to be affecting human lives negatively, statistics revealed that 9 out of 10 people breathe contaminated air, diseases related to air pollution is ranked 5th killer in the world.  With these a symposium to present research results and launch sensitisation campaign on the “Effects of Air Pollution on health” took place in the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Douala on January 2022.
During the Symposium, research results presented by Prof Mbatchou Bertrand of the University of Douala revealed that breathing contaminated air can lead to deterioration of respiratory health or cardiovascular health. He also revealed that mostly women and children are exposed to air pollution at home as they spend longer hours cooking in charcoal and other fuel that contaminate the air.
He further revealed to the press that the project is under Clean Air Africa which involves three countries, Cameroon, Ghana and Kenya with the collaboration of the University of Liverpool. He added that the main objective is to look at the main cooking tools used in households especially those that are not good for health like wood, charcoal or smoke. “There are some of them that are said to be clean fuel like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity. We wanted to know the percentage of use of these different cooking tools in our households. We wanted to know what barriers to the use of clean fuel are. We are also aiming at strengthening the capacity of medical doctors, students and sensitize the population so tha...