UI’s Abadina College wins trophy at World Environment Day event

AN environmental health expert, Professor OladapoOkareh, has highlighted the severity of the menace of plastic waste, noting that microplastics are now found in human sperm and toothpaste.

Professor Okareh said this while representing the Provost, College of Medicine and the Dean, Faculty of Public Health, University of Ibadan at the World Environment Day event organised by the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and anchored by the Environmental Health Students Association (EHSA) in collaboration with some NGOs including Child Health Environment and Safety Trust (CHEST) and NextGen.

The event witnessed competitions including debate and poetry, arts/crafts exhibition and tree planting. The climax was the presentation of trophy to the school, Abadina College University of Ibadan, that came top overall.

The environmental competition trophy was instituted by the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, but donated by CHEST to support environment programmes in schools. Participants were drawn from Oyo State Ministry of Environment, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), School of Hygiene Eleyele and other participants from within and outside the university community.

Professor Okareh said that findings from a completed thesis that is yet to be published showed that samples of some toothpaste brands purchased within the country contained microplastics. He also added that according to a published research work, microplastics had been found in human sperm.

“Plastics are useful, but when they become waste, they become a nuisance to the environment. This has been a challenge of global interest,” he said.

“The solution lies with all of us here,” he added, as he called for a concerted and coordinated effort by government and the public to tackle plastic pollution.

"Despite all the remedies advanced one key panacea is addressing our attitudinal and behavioural deficits. Doing this requires being intentional in grooming a critical mass of people that will love, value and protect the environment.

“With the endline of SDG 2030 approaching the post SDG strategy is to double efforts in grooming our children in and out of school to be the vanguards of the changes we desire to see in the years to come," said the founder of CHEST, Professor Godson Ana.

ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE