Women around the world play distinct roles in protecting the

In this investigation, the impact of cement dust pollution on respiratory systems of Lafarge cement workers was evaluated. A total of 120 respondents; 60 from the factory workers and 60 (controls) from Ifo, a nearby village 22 km NE of the factory were interviewed in 2014 using a modified respiratory symptom score questionnaire. Two hypotheses were formulated in null form and tested at 95% probability level. Descriptive statistics, independent and dependent t-tests were used to compare treatments while Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe multiple comparisons were used for comparing groups. Results indicated that there were no significant differences in the rate of breathlessness and wheezing, cough, chest illnesses and past illnesses between factory workers and controls. There were however significant differences in rates of breathlessness and wheezing, and past illnesses between workers in packing section and other sections of the factory. The study recommended that the government should look into the welfare of lafarge cement workers to ensure that additional and adequate safety devices are provided to the factory workers.

Climatic change impact is envisaged to lead to increase in the frequency of occurrence of floods. This study examined the effect of flooding on fishermen's families in Pedro village, Iwaya, Lagos. A total of 50 fishermen living in Pedro Community, Iwaya-Lagos, Nigeria were interviewed using structured questionnaires that were distributed through a simple random sampling technique. Data collected were summarized and computed using descriptive statistics. Results showed that flooding was a dominant seasonal climatic factor. Seventy-six percent of the respondents stated that flooding distorted the fishing business, destroyed fishing implements and impacted negatively on their social life. Flooding also interrupted children's schooling, increased environmental pollution, reduced fish catch and consequently family income and also increased the occurrence of water borne diseases. Most (96%) of the respondents would not like their children to continue with fishing and will opt out if they get alternative means of livelihood. The study recommended that efforts to remedy the adverse effects of flooding should include provision of alternative skill development and affordable health services for treatment of water born diseases. © JASEM http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v18i4.13

Functional properties of sausage rolls made from cocoyam and wheat flour enriched with soybean flour was studied. Cocoyam cormels and soybean were processed into flour, which were later used to formulate composite flour blends, with wheat flour in the ratio of: 90:10:0 (control 1), 80:10:10, 70:10:20, 60:10:40, 50:10:30, respectively, while 0:10:90 served as control 2. The result of the functional properties showed variation in behavior. There were no significant difference (p≥0.05) in pH, bulk density, swelling index, foam capacity and emulsion capacity of the flour samples while significant difference (p≤0.05) existed in water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity and wettability.

The effects of pre-milling heat treatment types on the functional properties of the resultant flour blends of some indigenous thickening seeds and cocoyam (ede-ocha) at various percentages were examined. Flours of indigenous thickening seeds of achi, ofo and ukpo, and that of cocoyam were used in this work. Functional analyses showed that the blend type of ofo-cocoyam flour had better swelling index (SI) (3.28±0.28) and water absorption capacity (WAC) (5.10±1.77ml/g) than that of ukpo-cocoyam; ukpo-cocoyam blend exhibited better oil absorption capacity (OAC) (1.41±0.21ml/g), though not significantly higher than ofo-cocoyam and achi-cocoyam (p≤0.05). Among treatment types, flour of boiled sample had better SI (3.35±0.60) and WAC (4.56±1.58ml/g) than that of the roasted sample which gave better OAC (1.45±0.33ml/g) that was statistically equal to boiled blend (1.39±0.23ml/g), steamed blend (1.26±0.27ml/g) and raw blend (1.44±0.29ml/g). Among blending ratios, 25% cocoyam (CY) flour blend had significantly higher WAC (5.07±0.62ml/g) than the control and other blends, with SI of 3.06±0.59 which statistically equal to the 75% cocoyam flour blend (3.12±0.53). The boiled sample exhibited better functional properties than others; such that ofo-CY exhibited better functional properties than other blends types as the 25% CY flour sample exhibited better functional properties than other blend ratio samples. Further work should be directed to investigate this experiment with another species of cocoyam to check whether remarkable improvements can be obtained in the characteristics of the resultant flour blend with achi, ofo, ukpo.