Posted by By Kayode Aponmale on
Electricity generator smoke has killed a man, identified as Austine Mordi, and his 10-year-old son, Daniel, in Agric area of Ikorodu, Lagos.
Electricity generator smoke has killed a man, identified as Austine Mordi, and his 10-year-old son, Daniel, in Agric area of Ikorodu, Lagos.
The man's wife and daughter were also affected and have been hospitalised. The family of four inhaled the fume from their generator while sleeping in their home.
According to a family source, the incident was uncovered by an early caller to the house in the morning, who later put a call across to Austine Mordi's younger brother, who is the owner of the house, when he could not find anybody.
When Felix Mordi, a clearing agent at NAHCO, Ikeja Airport, came and forced the windows and doors open, Austine, wife, son and daughter were seen gasping for breath.
They were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, where the man's 10-year-old son died shortly after arrival while Austine himself died at about 10 p.m., later that day.
Another source, who identified the surviving daughter as Nkechi, said the 14-year-old girl and the mother are responding to treatment.
Felix Mordi, in a telephone chat, confirmed the incident, but declined to speak further on the issue, saying that it's not a press matter.
Ironically, P.M.News investigations revealed that Austine had just started work with Lagos State government's BRT as a driver, on Monday, 1 September, a day before his demise.
We also gathered that the generating set that killed him and his son, Daniel, was purchased the previous Saturday, 30 August, barely 72 hours before the incident.
Meanwhile, a medical expert has warned that prolonged exposure to fume from electricity generating sets could stall growth in children and cause lung cancer in adults.
Dr. Ade Tinubu of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), said generator fumes contains toxic hydrocarbons, especially Carbon Monoxide (CO), an invisible and odourless poisonous gas.
'Some of the toxic fumes when inhaled have the effect in a short period of time that can stall the growth of children,' Tinubu said.
He adds that the toxic materials which affect the cells in a growing child could also deaden the brain. And some of the effects, he notes, may take many years before they manifest.
According to the medical practitioner, there are a number of substances in generator fumes that are 'carcinogenic'; whose inhalation, over time, has consequences that are as bad as having been a smoker for a long period.
Citing the rising cases of lung cancer in the country, the doctor declared that 'there are a certain percentage of people who are non-smokers, but would develop lung cancer.
'We probably need to begin to look at what effects these fume emitted from generating sets have to do with the disease,' he said.
Carbon Monoxide from generator fume, he explained, binds with haemoglobin - the oxygen carrying agent in red blood cells - to rob the brain and other organs, of the life-giving substance. And when that occurs, death, he says, could result, or lead to brain impairment.
The doctor lamented the rising number of people using generating sets in the country, as a result of the epileptic power supply situation. Apart from the negative economic effects, the health implications, he noted, goes beyond just inhaling poisonous fumes, to people dying in fire incidents occasioned by petrol stored in homes.
'We treat a lot of burn injuries in our hospital here. Some of them are high degree burns that sometimes result in the death of the victims,' disclosed the doctor.