NAN-AE-2
Burning
By Mercy Osajiugo
Minna, Dec. 8, 2016 (NAN) The Niger State Environmental Protection Agency (NISEPA) on Thursday decried indiscriminate bush burning in the state, saying the practice was “detrimental to health and the environment’’.
Alhaji Usman Kolos, the NISEPA’s Deputy General Manager, made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna.
He said that carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emitted during bush burning were dangerous to the body as they endangered the body system.
“Pulmonary vascular diseases are triggered during bush burning and the vulnerability was high during the harmattan.
“The smoke inhaled during such process harms the lungs like cigarette smoke does and this can lead to serious health issues,’’ Kolos said.
He said that bush burning also affected the soil by degrading its quality thereby losing fertility.
“Kolos also said that bush burning increased soil temperature and exposed the soil to danger as it exposed it to the sun.
He explained that lack of shade increased the temperature of the soil.
“Burning of bushes destroyed microbes in the soil and some plants depend on microbes to thrive, without microbes plants growth are retarded and stunted,’’ Kolos said.
He warned that anybody caught in the act would be charged and prosecuted by the agency’s mobile court.(NAN)
MNO/AOM/AMY
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Edited by Abdullahi Mohammed/Abdullahi Yusuf