Doctors warn about lead in Yemeni vehicle emissions [Archives:2006/1008/Health]
Mahmoud Al-Harazi
[email protected]
For Yemen Times
Saleh Saif's aunt is in her 40s and has suffered from asthma for more than eight years. “My asthma increases whenever I go outside and inhale vehicle exhausts,” she notes.
Mohammed Arraimi also has suffered from asthma for more than five years due to exhausts from vehicles daily passing his Sheraton Street grocery, which neighbors Sheraton roundabout where most cars stop. He confirmed that both local shopkeepers and residents constantly complain about car exhausts, saying their shops and homes are tainted with black spots due to such emissions.
Although there are no real statistics in Yemen directly linking respiratory diseases and vehicle emissions, many studies link air pollution in Yemen's major cities and the appearance of various diseases among such cities' residents.
Studies in 2004 by the Environment Protection Authority and the United Nations Development Program confirm the reason for such pollution is a rapidly increasing population rate, thereby increasing activities such as burning fossil fuels like gas, coal and oil to power industrial processes and motor vehicles.
Among the harmful chemical compounds such burning releases into the atmosphere are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and tiny solid particles, including lead from gasoline additives.
The EPA/UNDP study found that Sana'a consumes 29,000 out of 50,000 barrels of oil used annually in all of Yemen. However, the capital city's portion of poison-produced gases is very high and well beyond lower international standards. Moreover, Yemeni doctors have warned on various occasions about the increased impact of air pollution in general and the impact of lead emissions in particular.
Al-Thawra General Hospital Deputy Zaid Ahmed Atif says, “Environmental pollution leads to large numbers of humans being infected with many diseases. The danger of lead is its ability to cross barriers and cause strokes and other neurological diseases, especially in children. Lead also raises the rate of physical and mental underdevelopment and its deposit in the liver leads to various diseases.
He continued, “We have diseases in Yemen that don't exist in the world of medical books, so we mostly attribute the cause of these diseases to the unknown. Yemen doesn't have the laboratories to examine the causes, but pollution tops the list of causes, especially liver disease.”
According to doctors, lead pollution has a significant impact on the presence of many diseases generally, such as respiratory, arterial, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. If one is affected by lead, it will remain in the body for 25 years.
Lead penetrating fetal membranes during pregnancy eventually can cause lung cancer, which has a high proportion. “Regrettably, lead also affects metabolism via skin absorption and moist skin membranes, as well as the digestive and respiratory systems,” added Atif, who confirmed that lead in vehicle emissions is especially dangerous because it enters the body in immeasurable amounts.
Continually and involuntarily sniffling and breathing causes particles to combine with large carrier toxins in the air. Such toxins deposit in the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart and blood vessels as they circulate with oxygen in the blood. With each breath, these toxic particles accumulate in small quantities and then interact in the body. If it reaches a certain level, the body won't be able to survive as cells fill with poison.
Respiratory diseases, which begin from the nose (and sometimes the mouth), enter through the mouth, pass to the lungs and then develop into a disease like asthma, which is the lungs' inability to absorb enough oxygen and thus corrupts the bronchioles. “A scientific study shows that children's ability to absorb pollutants is higher than the elderly,” Atif notes.
“To keep children from absorbing pollutants, the problem needs to be treated at the source of pollution,” he added.
Besides lead, Atif referred to other materials resulting from burning gasoline, which consists of solid particles. “Poisonous carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide and deadly lead oxides remain in the air for such a long time that humans, animals and plants breathe them, thus causing problems to their natural compositions.
“For example, lead affecting plants may result in forming additional toxic substances causing blood poisoning in humans as a result of deposits in plant tissues that humans considered foods. The same thing happens with animals that are exposed to large quantities of leaded gas emissions and then eaten by humans,” Atif explained.
Head agent for Toyota in Yemen, Mohammed Al-Audarous, says, “Vehicles are the key reason for lead in the air and in the human body. More than 70 percent of existing vehicles in Yemen contribute to the presence of lead.”
According to statistics from the General Department of Traffic in Sana'a, nearly 250,000 vehicles are operating in Sana'a, more than 20,000 of which run on diesel. Additionally, more than 25,000 vehicles were seized in Sana'a due to poor exhaust emissions.
Yemeni officials are working to reduce lead emissions in the air. Marib Refinery is an example of a Yemeni firm working to produce unleaded gasoline, but some refineries still use leaded gasoline because they are old. Aden Refinery also hopes to improve and replace lead with less damaging materials. However, the existing older cars running on leaded fuel won't be replaced entirely.
The elimination of air pollutants is persuading the Yemeni government to reduce customs on new car imports and it is working on procedures to prevent importing cars with diesel engines. It also is assisting owners of older vehicles with diesel engines to change them to lead-free gasoline engines. Some Yemeni oil refineries like Safer Exploration and Production Operations Company have begun producing lead-free gasoline.
The EPA recently has held numerous discussions and workshops with the ministries of oil, transport and water and environment, wherein they discussed methods to get rid of lead in gasoline. In this regard, Minister of Water and Environment Abdul-Rahman Al-Eryani confessed that the idea to eliminate lead in gasoline may have come too late. “Yemen has been slow to ban lead due to a lack of awareness about this subject,” he noted.
EPA Chairman Mahmoud Shedaiwa pointed out that Yemen is one of 22 countries still using leaded gasoline. “Replacement with lead-free gasoline will be within the framework of the third five-year Plan for Development and Alleviating Poverty (2006-2010), in keeping with the Arab environment, Arab ministers and other Arab nations, including the Gulf Cooperation Council, which are decreasing the use of leaded gasoline.”
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