The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa, made the call in Abuja while declaring open a one-day seminar on persistent organic pollutants.
The seminar is being attended by scientific officers of the ministry and its agencies.
POPs are toxic chemicals that when released into the environment take a very long time to degrade, thus adversely affecting human health and the environment.
Reports say that Ewa was represented by Mr Sunday Enokola, the Director of Human Resources Management in the ministry.
Ewa said that all over the world, people were worried about what the environment would be in the next decade due to pollution in the air, water and land.
He said that if urgent steps were not taken to control most of what were being thrown around, ``we might just discover that we are living in a polluted environment where no one will survive.’’
The minister, therefore, called for the collaboration of agencies under the ministry and the Ministry of Environment to deploy scientific tools that could be used to combat POPs.
``I must at this juncture mandate the National Research Institute and Chemical Technology and the National Biotechnology Development Agency to apply chemical and biotechnology tools to fight POPs to a standstill in collaboration with the ministry of environment,’’ he said.
In his lecture entitled ``First Dirty + 9 + 1 Persistent Organic Pollutants'', Mr Ekanem Udoh, Deputy Director, Chemical Technology and Energy Research Department, urged Nigerian scientists to join the world study team in addressing the menace of POPs.
Udoh said there was a need for Nigerian scientists to join their colleagues across the globe to look for alternative chemicals that were more environmental friendly.
``The task of keeping the environment clean and sustainable is our responsibility and as researchers and science administrators, the country looks up to us to provide leadership in deploying science and technology tools to combat class of pollutants,’’ he said .
Udoh listed the POPs to include the ``First Dirty Dozen POPs’’ such as aldrin, deldrin, chloradane, dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), dioxin and furans, endrin, Polychlorinated biphenyis (PCBs) and hexacchlorobenzene.
He said 185 countries, including Nigeria, signed the UN treaty in Stockholm, Sweden, in May 2001, to reduce and eliminate the production, use and release of ``the first dirty dozen chemicals.''
Udoh explained that although these chemicals had been banned, it was possible that the new releases might come from the use of individually owned stockpiles for industrial and farming purposes.
He said that POPs could be transported by wind and water, adding that most POPs generated in one country could affect people and wildlife far from where they were used or released.
He said aldrin and dieldrin had been in use from the 1950s to the early 1970s as a soil insecticide and mothproofing of woolen products to control root worms, beetles and termites.
Udoh said constant exposure to these POPs might be associated with testicular cancer and prostate cancer.
``However, studies have linked chlordane/heptachlor in human tissues with cancers of the breast, prostate, brain, and cancer of blood cells.
``In addition to cancer, exposure to dioxin can also cause severe reproductive and developmental problems (at levels 100 times lower than those associated with its cancer causing effects).
``Dioxin is well-known for its ability to damage the immune system and interfere with hormonal systems,'' he said.
Udoh said that exposure to dioxin had also been linked to birth defects, inability to maintain pregnancy, decreased fertility and reduced sperm counts.
Other health effects of exposure to dioxin, he said, were endometriosis, diabetes, learning disabilities, immune system suppression, lung problems, skin disorders and lowered testosterone levels.
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