Following the recent outcry about the impact of soot in Nigeria’s oil capital, Port Harcourt, local NGO, the Extra Step Initiative alongside key partners X3M Ideas has unveiled a new website tagged SootCity.com to help residents calculate their life expectancy.

SootCity website uses a data model embedded with decades of soot research across multiple countries and bodies like the United Nations, World Health Organisation and Umweltbundesamt – the German Environment Agency as well as time spent in soot-affected areas to predict Years of Life Left (YLL) based on each user input.

Having consistently delivered impactful social intervention projects spanning over a decade, X3M Ideas aims to nudge the right bodies and Nigerians across the country to save the lives of residents of Port Harcourt.

“With the launch of the website, we add another important tool that we hope will not only jolt the Government to take action but will also communicate to the wider public the urgency of the situation, not just for those in Port Harcourt but for everyone across the country,” said Steve Babaeko, the Founder and CEO of X3M Ideas.

Eugene Abels the Founder of The Extra Step Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation based in Port Harcourt says, “After 60 years of Rivers State being the hub of the hydrocarbon industry and with the damaging activities of the non-state actors, the Rivers State Government with external support must lead the charge to audit the damage to our flora and fauna particularly the respiratory health of the residents of Port Harcourt and other host communities from the activities of legal and illegal refining of crude oil so as to curb the rate of cancers and renal failure amongst children, indigent people and pregnant women. It is also our belief that even the United Nations Ogoni Clean Up report is obsolete and should be updated by the Federal Government to reflect the current realities which a 10-year-old report does not capture.”

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In addition to the State Government’s intervention in 2022 with raids on illegal refineries as well as the Senate’s 2022 motion titled ‘Curbing Soot’s Particulates droppings, health Hazards concern and economic sabotage by illegal refining of crude products in Rivers State’, sponsored by Senator George Thompson Sekibo, amongst others, SootCity aims to proffer more specific and integrated solutions to what is considered an environmental, health and economic pandemic in the region.

Some of the solutions being proffered include the collaboration of government at all levels with all stakeholders on clear and strategic activities like the identification and containment of pollution sites; ensuring that IOCs conduct their businesses in line with international best practices; and restructuring and empowerment of environmental and security agencies with the finance and equipment to implement and enforce environmental laws amongst others.

First discovered in 2016, soot in Port Harcourt stems from illegal bunkering and oil refining activities resulting in the release of harmful toxins into the atmosphere, causing different forms of respiratory, skin, reproductive, and other life-threatening conditions.

“The timely nature of this intervention cannot be overemphasised, considering the recent wave of soot-related illnesses. The State Government itself through the office of the former Commissioner for Environment, Prof. Roseline Konya, in 2019, reviewed over 22,077 cases of respiratory diseases related to the presence of soot in the city.

Every year we record thousands of cases of soot-related illnesses. It is time for us to demand action from the Government to save what’s left of the lives of residents of Port Harcourt,” Dr Oge Isokariari, Public Relations Officer of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria and Public Health Physician at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, said.

We often save ourselves the harmful effects of any action by avoiding such actions in the first place, rather than waiting to remedy the resulting consequences. This philosophy applies to all areas of life, and to the maintenance of assets.

Prevention is a principle in modern primary healthcare systems and a major factor in the increasing global popularity of wellness programmes.

In healthcare, where the concept is most popular, the logic is quite straightforward: go upstream to tackle the causes of ill-health rather than waiting downstream to cure the resulting illnesses.

As global health concerns mount over the health impact of smoking, all scientifically verified measures that can drive down the prevalence of smoking should be encouraged and pursued. In recent months, different civil society organisations (CSO) have increased the call for implementation of graphic health warnings alongside text on cigarette packs.

The clamour must be applauded for considering the potential harm of tobacco smoke exposure to smokers and non-smokers who are in proximity to them.

Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) is a pragmatic approach to reducing the harm from combustible tobacco based on the scientific and empirical evidence that the risk of harm to smokers is from the toxic effluents that result when tobacco is burned, which the smokers in turn inhale, and not from the nicotine that they crave.

Therefore, by providing alternative products that deliver nicotine or the sensation of smoking but without the combustion of tobacco, THR prevents nicotine consumers from exposure to harmful tobacco smoke, which they would otherwise get from combustible tobacco.

As a public health strategy, THR advises and encourages smokers to switch from combustible tobacco to these alternative products, which are known as reduced risk products (RRP).

RRPs include e-cigarettes; heated tobacco products (HTP, which heat tobacco without burning them), nicotine pouches; nicotine gums and others.

Whereas, proponents of THR recognise that abstinence remains the best way to prevent tobacco harm, experience has shown over time that abstinence is not always feasible. For those users who are either unable or unwilling to quit, RRPs are targeted at smokers who choose to continue to enjoy nicotine, while appreciating the harm from tobacco smoke.

Prevention of smoking at any stage remains a more effective health and wellness strategy than stopping, hence more proactive initiatives that translate to earlier interventions tend to yield better outcomes.

This is perhaps among the reasons that countries, which were early adopters of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, have not only accepted the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of THR but are also implementing science-backed regulations that provide guidance on the use of reduced risk products.

In an evidence brief published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2014, WHO reported that citizens of such countries like Canada and the UK indicated that pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs provided more motivation to quit than text only warnings.

However, in more recent times, the government of Canada through Health Canada has issued science-backed statements such as “Completely replacing cigarette smoking with vaping will reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals” and “Vaping products and e-cigarettes deliver nicotine in a less harmful way than smoking cigarettes” among several messages to adult smokers to move them away from combustible tobacco products.

With graphic health warnings mostly limited to cigarette packs, smokers tend to encounter them following a decision to not only smoke but also to proceed to purchasing cigarettes. At that point, a decision has already been made to smoke and the graphic images at the point of sale or on cigarettes packs might be less effective as a deterrent.

On the other hand, THR messages continuously and steadily enjoin smokers to turn away from combustible cigarettes and switch to alternative products that prevent exposure to toxic tobacco smoke. This messaging does not depend on a smoker’s contact with cigarette packs.

Beyond providing earlier warnings, THR also provides less risky alternatives on the understanding that smokers really crave nicotine, which is not toxic, and not the toxic smoke from tobacco combustion.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) of the UK has published a guidance on THR (or alternative tobacco products) and its efficacy in driving down smoking rates.

The guidance recognizes that quitting smoking is always the best option for smokers, but it supports the use of licensed nicotine containing products (NCPs) to help smokers, who are currently unable to quit, to switch to a less harmful option.

A study by William G Shadel, Steven C Martino, Claude M Setodji, Michael Dunbarin, et al., to assess the efficacy of graphic health warnings in deterring tobacco smokers was published by Oxford Academic in June 2019.

The result showed that graphic health warning labels reduced the chances of cigarette purchases for smokers with lower nicotine dependence but had no effect on smokers with higher dependence.

This study is a pointer for many African countries that have implemented graphic health warnings only, to further adopt THR as a scientifically established strategy with empirical evidence of success in reducing smoking rates and preventing death and illness.

*Olufisayo Adeoti sent this piece from Lagos