‘Pollution increases cancer in children’

The Coordinator, Children with Cancer Intervention Initiative, Honour Onyebuchukwu, has called on the Federal Government to tackle environmental pollution as a means of reducing the incidence of cancer in the country.

Onyebuchkwu, who spoke at a briefing in Lagos, identified air and environmental pollution as some of the major causes of lung and other forms of cancer, especially in children.

She called on President Mohammad Buhari to bring back the War Against Indiscipline Initiative to ensure that Nigerians adhered to the environmental sanitation laws.

“We can’t defeat cancer if Nigerians continue to pollute their environment. How do we justify the open drainages and heaps of refuse that we see in front of our homes, schools and even hospitals? In Nigeria, factories are located around schools and residential areas.

“We, therefore, implore the Federal Government to check man-made activities that are endangering our lives and making children sick.”

One of the organisation’s coordinators, Mr. Akin Opayinka, called for the establishment of more cancer care centres in the country.

He advised that the cost of treatment for children in these centres should be subsidised as it is done for children in developing countries like India.