Among the series of development project inauguration and initiation news that have been hitting the headlines in recent weeks, the laying of a cornerstone for IGAD’s project of Regional Cancer Centre of Excellence was the one that would attract the attention of not only Ethiopian but also East Africans as a whole.
The project is timely and worthy of great importance as cancer, which had been deemed as the problem of the developed world, has already become an alarmingly growing public health threat of the developing world too.
The ugliest aspect of Cancer is it hardly shows discernible warning signals before giving devastating blows to its victims. In many cases, patients learn about their case long after the diseases reached an irreversible advanced stage. People in the prime of their life, at the zenith of their professional carrier and in the middle of watching their children growing, suddenly scummed to cancer, causing a shocking emotional crisis and a huge socio-economic vacuum to their families and their community at large.
While we praise the commitment of the authorities’ efforts to enable the majority of the populace to get access to high-quality cancer treatment facilities, we also stress the need to step up regulatory measures to prevent society from falling victims to cancer-causing agents and situations.
Here the first thing that pops up immediately to our mind is the law that bans smoking in public spaces. The new stricter anti-tobacco law, Food and Medicine Administration Proclamation No. 1112, promulgated just two years ago requires 100 percent smoke-free public and workplaces, bans tobacco advertising and promotions, specifies directives governing tobacco packaging, and labeling as well as restricts the sale of flavored tobacco products, among other things.
However, legal analysts express concern that the banning of smoking in public places under the Ethiopian legal framework is not effectively implemented to ensure its basic objectives of protecting the public from tobacco threat in general and secondhand smokers in particular. I wonder how many people or institutions were booked in connection with public smoking over the last few years since the first ban on smoking in public areas went into effect.
As far as I can tell, I heard no news about legal actions taken against the trespassers of the law. There are many occasions where I witnessed people smoke freely in public places with total disregard to the law, ignoring the ubiquitous warning signs posted on building walls and doors, saying, “No Smoking”.
With regards to smoking at least we have a law in place, but the issue with the other highly pervasive cancer agent in our society, plastics, which is being widely used and abused despite attempts made to introduce a law banning the use, manufacture, and import of single-use plastic bags which, is obviously a serious public health as well as an environmental menace. Heaven only knows how much of the toxic substances in our plastic water bottles and lunch boxes leaches out every day into our food and water.
The public health danger of plastics emanate from the way we dispose them at the end of their service life as it is from the way we use them. A recent study has indicated Ethiopia has seen a sharp rise in plastic consumption, with the last year’s figure being about 310 thousand tons. Almost half of the plastic used in Ethiopia is not being discarded properly. The wrong and irresponsible disposal of plastic debris contaminates the whole environment: polluting the land, the water as well as the air when they are burned.
A significant portion of our society disposes of their plastic waste by burning it in an open fire on roadsides or in their living quarters. Even some folks jeopardize their family health by using plastics in their villages as a fire starter to burn other trashes or to make a charcoal fire, a popular cooking heat source widely used in urban communities. Such a dangerous way of plastic disposal is also being practiced in some public and private institutions.
Only three decades ago, plastic materials including plastic bags were things of rarity. The imported highly decorated plastic bags that were sold in convenience stores were expensive. Only fashionable youths would dare to buy it to carry their small baggage.
The majority of the people in those days were using paper bags, old newspapers, or bags made of straw and sisals, Zembil, which was highly popular among the ladies. The sacks that were used to carry grains were made of biodegradable natural fibers, unlike the present ones which are plastic [poly propylene]. All water and soft drinks on the market were bottled in glass.-there were no plastic bottled drinks.
In stark contrast to the good old days, in today’s plastic-riddled society, almost all the bags we use are made of plastics. Be it bread, cloth, groceries, cosmetics, medicine, cereals, drinks…, the shop owners always hand us our purchases in plastic packages. Whether it is in the city or the countryside, plastics are everywhere.
During late evenings, when I usually walk home through the deserted shopping districts, I see the street covered with plastic bags and torn-out plastic packages. And in the early morning, when I walk to work on the same street, I find the street quickie clean but the surrounding air fumigated with the smoke of the burning plastic trashes on the roadside. Like all the numerous other passersby, I have to inhale the poisoned air every day until I cleared out of the area with a brisk walk.
The carcinogens and mutagens, the gaseous emissions that are released into the air from burning plastics are well-known public health threats, and the majority of the public, especially the urbanites do have the awareness of the health detriments of plastic burning. And yet, the intriguing thing is they did not dissuade themselves from doing it. It is like smoking tobacco knowing that it is a cause of cancer.
Civic societies and local governments [woredas], schools, community groups, and the media should push on for more actions to address the health hazards of plastic wastes in general and the rampant harmful practice of unsafe plastic burning in particular. No data is available on how much contribution does plastic burning has on the rising figures of cancer victims in our nation, but one can say with certainty open burning of plastic is a significant source of outdoor and indoor air pollution that costs the well-being of citizens and adds further strain to the under-resourced health system.
Encouraging innovative efforts have been made by authorities to mitigate solid waste pollution and the serious public health problems that accompany it. Committed to its pollution reduction strategy, the government has built in recent years Africa’s first waste-to-energy 50-megawatt power plant designed to dispose of three-quarters of the rubbish of capital Addis Ababa and provide energy to 25 percent of the population. This multimillion-dollar pollution waste management establishment was described by an environmental engineering researcher as a solution for two problems, namely pollution and power deficiency.
We also saw youth groups organized to create jobs for themselves by collecting solid wastes, especially plastic bottles and delivering them to recycling plants. The effort of these youth groups would have a greater impact if the society is sensitized to support their work by adopting the practice of separately piling plastic wastes in different containers from other household wastes. And special plastic garbage skip points should be set in all urban areas. Plastic burning should be strictly prohibited and penalized. Such safety regulation and their strict implementation would contribute to reduction in the figure of new cancer cases.
BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
The Ethiopian Herald May 2/2021
