Air Pollution and Human Health: Empirical Evidence from Cameroon

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of air pollution on human health in Cameroon. Specifically, the paper sought to determine the effects of air pollution on human health in Cameroon. The study also identified the major sources of air pollution in Cameroon and assesses the effectiveness of existing air pollution control policies. The study made use of secondary data from 1980 to 2021 sourced from the National Institute of Statistics and world health organization. The research design adopted was the causal research design where the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was used to analyze the data. Both pre and post-test were done to validate the results. The cumulative sum of recursive residuals (CUSUM) and the CUSUM of square (CUSUMSQ) tests to assess the parameter constancy. The long run results revealed that carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides all have a negative and significant impact on life expectancy in Cameroon. More specifically, long run results showed that, a unit increase in CO2 emission (LCO2) will reduces life expectancy by 0.127%, a unit increase in Methane emission (LMTHNE) will reduces life expectancy by 0.203% and a unit increase in Nitrous emission (LNITE) will reduces life expectancy by 0.017%. From a policy perspective, the government should encourage the planting of trees as the planting of one tree implies planting a life. Trees are important because they help to reduce the amount of carbon existing in the atmosphere.