Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov 16;12(1):19669.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19518-5.

Impact assessment of particulate pollution on maternal mortality in Nigeria

M E Emetere  1   2 , T E Oladimeji  3
Affiliations

Impact assessment of particulate pollution on maternal mortality in Nigeria

M E Emetere et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Recently, the World Health Organization reported that 20% of all global maternal deaths happened in Nigeria between 2005 and 2015. In developing countries, these maternal deaths are mainly from air pollution. Due to poor facilities and documentation, the extent of danger is not known. This research seeks to estimate the available pollutants and its direct and indirect impact on maternal mortality. Ten (10) years (2010-2019) datasets of black carbon, sulfur dioxide, dust, carbon monoxide, organic carbon particulates, sea-salts, and sulphate particulates were obtained from the second modern-era retrospective analysis for research and applications (MERRA-2). The dataset was obtained for the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and analyzed using statistical tool, models, spatial interpolation, and risk analysis. The volumetric and radioecological risk was also analyzed. It was observed the dust content had minute volume of heavy metal and/or radionuclide particles that may be unharmful in the short term but lethal in the long term. The risk quotient and total dose rate per organism are given as 0.00000396 and 0.0000396 µGy h-1. The result in this manuscript corroborates existing data on maternal mortality in Nigeria. It is recommended that the safety of pregnant woman depends on significant efforts of authorities to enact and enforce environmental laws to mitigate air pollution.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Maternal mortality rate in Nigeria (b) Maternal mortality ratios for different geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Nigeria geopolitical zones.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Air quality over selected cities in Nigeria.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Satellite measurement of major pollutants (a) Kano, north-west GZ (b) Aba, south-east GZ (c) Abuja, north-central GZ (d) Borno, north-east GZ (e) Lagos, south-west GZ (f) Port Harcourt, south-south GZ.
Figure 5
Figure 5
State of black carbon and sulphate particulates (a) Black Carbon Biomass Burning Emissions (2010–2014) (b) Black Carbon Biomass Burning Emissions (2015–2019) (c) Sulphate aerosol.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Dust dry deposition (a) 2010 (b) 2014 (c) 2015 (d) 2016 (e) 2017 (f) 2019.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Dust column u-wind mass flux (a) 2010, (b) 2014, (c) 2015, (d) 2016, (e) 2017 (f) 2019.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Dust column v-wind mass flux (a) 2010, (b) 2014, (c) 2015, (d) 2016, (e) 2017 (f) 2019.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Percentile classification of dry dust deposition.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Risk analysis (a) early dry season-SON (b) late dry season-DJF (c) early wet season-MAM (d) late dry season-JJA.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Dust deposition model in human lungs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Pope C, Aruni B, James P, Luid M, Wesley TA, Daniel JC, Timothy EO. Exposure to fine particulate air pollution is associated with endothelial injury and systemic inflammation. Circ. Res. 2016;119:1204–1214. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.116.309279. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Checa Vizcaíno MA, González-Comadran M, Jacquemin B. Outdoor air pollution and human infertility: A systematic review. Fertil Steril. 2016;106(4):897–904. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.07.1110. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Patel AB, Meleth S, Pasha O, Goudar SS, Esamai F, Garces AL, Chomba E, McClure EM, Wright LL, Koso-Thomas M, et al. Impact of exposure to cooking fuels on stillbirths, perinatal, very early and late neonatal mortality—A multicenter prospective cohort study in rural communities in India, Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia and Guatemala. Matern. Health Neonatol. Perinatol. 2015;1:18. doi: 10.1186/s40748-015-0019-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brunekreef B, Holgate ST. Air pollution and health. Lancet. 2002;360:1233–1242. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11274-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Stanek LW, Brown JS, Stanek J, Gift J, Costa DL. Air pollution toxicology—A brief review of the role of the science in shaping the current understanding of air pollution health risks. Toxicol. Sci. 2011;120(1):S8–27. doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kfq367. - DOI - PubMed