Impacts of petroleum refinery emissions on the health and safety of local residents

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 25% of mortality in developing countries arises from environmental hazards. Over the years, soaring demand for humanity’s essential needs has prompted industrial-scale production and the generation of large quantities of waste. Petroleum refineries generate large quantities of waste which gives rise to health effects such as cancer, eye defects, birth defects, and reproductive defects. Furthermore, the residents living around refineries encounter several hazards arising from operations that generate noise, radiation, chemicals, vibration, dust and toxic pollutant gases. The current research landscape indicates that Petroleum Refinery Emissions or PREs pose significant risks to human health, safety and the environment. Therefore, this paper presents a concise review of the acute and chronic effects of PREs on the health and safety of residents living within the vicinity of petroleum refineries. The reviewed literature revealed that PREs cause various cancers, leukaemia, as well as cardiovascular, respiratory, and reproduction disorders. Hence, numerous approaches to mitigate, eliminate or address the short and long term effects of PREs have been proposed in the literature. The proposed approaches include the bioremediation as well as the monitoring and evaluation of PREs to promptly detect, remediate and eliminate the hazards. However, other measures that could help address the outlined occupational health and environmental safety-related issues will go a long way in mitigating or curbing the socio-economic, environmental, health and safety impacts of PREs and industrial wastes.