EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIAL AIR POLLUTION ON THE PROXIMATE DWELLERS OF EWEKORO CEMENT FACTORY: APPLICATION OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS ANALYSIS
OJO, G. OLUGBENGA AND OGUNNUSI, O. NURUDEEN, Volume 3 Issue 1, 2020 Pages 25-38, Published: 2020-09-25
Abstract
This research work examined the impact of industrial air pollution on dwellers at Ewekoro area of Ogun State, Southwestern part of Nigeria. Data were gathered from 250 participants who were randomly selected from the study area using Taro Yamani’s sample selection approach. The major impacts considered in examining these are ear defects, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, cancer, eroding and corroding of roofs, devaluation of property values and land productivity. The data collected based on these effects were analyzed using principal component analysis technique, so as to determine the most prevalent effects of problems. The results gave rise to the Eigen values and corresponding Eigen vectors of the components, whereby the variance proportion for each is given as 30.962%, 18.309%, 15.882%, 9.872%, 9.510%, 8.980% and 6.486% for ear defects, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, cancer, eroding and corroding of roofs, devaluation of property values and land productivity respectively. Eigen values of PC effects greater or equal to one (1) were considered among estimated eigenvalues. This indicates that first three PC were considered. Empirical analysis of this research study showed that industrial air pollution predominantly affects the dwellers health, as the first three PC constitute the health variables of ear defects, cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure. The result concluded that remedial action is urgently needed in addition to prior existing actions. It is hereby recommended that industries should unveil and put to practice its collective social obligations to balance industrial development with environmental protection and as well, enact conservative policies that will protect dwellers near the industrial space health and properties