DEATH FROM RECYCLED BATTERY…1
Regulators must be alive to their responsibilities
As Nigerians grapple with the frightening violence and destruction caused by terrorists, bandits and kidnappers, a report by the ‘New York Times’ has revealed how the recycling of spent batteries is gradually becoming another harbinger of death in our country, particularly for those who reside in the areas where this activity takes place. Ogijo, a boundary community between Lagos and Ogun in Sagamu Local Government Area, is implicated. “Lead dust is everywhere in Ogijo, on kitchen floors, vegetable gardens, church grounds and schoolyards. With every breath, local people absorb lead particles into their bloodstreams. The metal seeps into their brains, wreaking havoc on nervous systems,” according to the report that has been confirmed to be true by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA). “Toddlers ingest it by crawling across floors and then putting their hands in their mouths, in some cases leading to irreversible brain damage.”
Spent batteries release lead and acid when they are handled improperly. Lead is a highly hazardous and toxic heavy metal. It affects the brain, kidneys, blood, and the nervous system. Children and pregnant women face the highest risk. Community residents who live near unregulated recycling facilities record elevated blood lead levels. Acid from the batteries contaminates soil and water. Informal smelting releases fumes that pollute the air and settle on farmland and water bodies. These practices damage health, reduce productivity and pollute the environment, says NESREA Director General, Innocent Barikor.
This public health catastrophe, according to the New York Times, is the result of local factories that recycle car batteries extracting the lead within to make new products. “They do this in Nigeria thanks to a well-established, if unsavoury, reality of the global economy: As tighter standards have limited lead pollution in wealthier nations, manufacturers have shifted their sights abroad. They rely increasingly on communities so desperate for jobs that their leaders have tacitly accepted lead poisoning as the cost of livelihood.”
Globally, there are laws that regulate the recycling of lead batteries, considering how harmful they are. In Nigeria, there are subsisting laws to address the problem. The main regulatory instrument is the National Environmental (Battery Control) Regulations, 2024, which require producers, importers, distributors, collectors, and recyclers to manage batteries in line with sound environmental practices. The regulations also place responsibility on producers (manufacturer, importers, etc.) under the extended producer responsibility programme to ensure safe collection and recycling of batteries when they get to end-of-life.
The NESREA is responsible for enforcing all environmental laws, guidelines, policies, standards and regulations in Nigeria, as well as enforcing compliance with provisions of international agreements, protocols, conventions and treaties on the environment to which Nigeria is a signatory. We are aware that the agency recently carried out an enforcement exercise in Ogijo by engaging stakeholders and operators in the sector to create awareness on the regulations. The sensitisation of recyclers was done in collaboration with the Project on Responsible Battery and Metal Recycling (PROBAMET), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and state governments.
As part of the enforcement of the regulations, recalcitrant facilities in the Ogijo community were shut down, and their operators compelled to enter into an agreement to abide by the protocol developed by NESREA. The intention is to mitigate the impact of their activities on the health of residents and the environment and also ensure they operate in line with global best practices. The Protocol commits recycling industries to manage Used Lead-Acid Battery (ULAB) slag and base metal residues in a safe, environmentally sound, and socially responsible manner. It also provides a system for slag documentation and tracking and mandates recycling facilities to prioritise staff health and safety including carrying out annual blood lead testing for workers and the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
· Concluded tomorrow.
