Background: The oil-rich Niger Delta suffers from extensive petroleum contamination. A pilot study was conducted\nin the region of Ogoniland where one community, Ogale, has drinking water wells highly contaminated with a\nrefined oil product. In a 2011 study, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) sampled Ogale drinking\nwater wells and detected numerous petroleum hydrocarbons, including benzene at concentrations as much as\n1800 times higher than the USEPA drinking water standard. UNEP recommended immediate provision of clean\ndrinking water, medical surveillance, and a prospective cohort study. Although the Nigerian government has\nprovided emergency drinking water, other UNEP recommendations have not been implemented. We aimed to (i)\nfollow up on UNEP recommendations by investigating health symptoms associated with exposure to\ncontaminated water; and (ii) assess the adequacy and utilization of the government-supplied emergency\ndrinking water.\nMethods: We recruited 200 participants from Ogale and a reference community, Eteo, and administered\nquestionnaires to investigate water use, perceived water safety, and self-reported health symptoms.\nResults: Our multivariate regression analyses show statistically significant associations between exposure to\nOgale drinking water and self-reported health symptoms consistent with petroleum exposure. Participants in\nOgale more frequently reported health symptoms related to neurological effects (OR = 2.8), hematological\neffects (OR = 3.3), and irritation (OR = 2.7).\nConclusions: Our results are the first from a community relying on drinking water with such extremely high\nconcentrations of benzene and other hydrocarbons. The ongoing exposure and these pilot study results\nhighlight the need for more refined investigation as recommended by UNEP.
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