The Mettaboy Report

Lead poisoning is preventable. Yet widespread use of lead in consumables including paints and gasoline continues to pose major risks to environment and public health. WHO ranks exposure to the  versatile and toxic substance among the top ten priority chemicals of public health concerns in Africa.   In a recent self-assessment survey by WHO, majority of Member States in Africa identified lead poisoning as a key public health threat. Exposure is pervasive to human health. Lead poisoning kills about 494,550 people yearly, accounting for over 9.3 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) due to long-term health effects. In Africa, it is responsible for about 22,605 deaths in 2016. There is no known safe concentration of lead in the blood.   In the body, the heavy metal affects brain, liver, kidney and bones.   Exposure produces a spectrum of irreversible injuries including loss of cognition, shortening of attention span, alteration of behavior, attention def...

An Africa Progress Panel report puts it simply:  ''If Africa is so resource-rich, why are its people not better educated, its children well-nourished and its adults longer-lived?'' The decades old question remains spot-on today as yesterday.  Africa’s subsoil is rich enormously and will remain so, at least for some years to come. It host   an estimated 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, and even greater share of key precious and base metals including diamond and platinum [1] .   Over 9 percent of the world’s petroleum reserves and 7.5 percent of gas reserves are found in the continent [2] . After agriculture, the extractive sector is the most important in terms of contribution to gross domestic product.   The International Monetary Fund has grouped more than 20 African countries as heavily dependent on natural resources, with resource revenues accounting for over 20 percent of their tax and export revenues. Many more countries are increasingly d...