WRITTEN BY BEN OBASI
Aside terrorism, there are threats to lives every day, and no one knows when death will come. If it is not cancer, malaria or typhoid, it is road, office or domestic accident; and for some time now, electric generator fumes are occasioning deaths.
Electricity helps to power our technology and drive national development. However, with perennial inefficiency in power management and epileptic power supply that has bedeviled our public power systems; Nigerians could not stand still but settle for alternative sources. Power generating sets become that ready option, open to most people for home comfort and business productivity.
Economic situation has made the smaller sizes of generators a preferred alternative, serving families, cluster settlements, s mallholder churches, and market stalls usefully, and small businesses very productively. Unfortunately, positioning these generators endangers lives through asphyxiation that results from inhalation of the generated fumes. Families have woken up to the bizarre sight of deaths of some relations due to suffocation from inhaled fumes. The fumes from exhaust pipes of generators cluster in the lungs and block air passage, leading to the death of victims.
The installation of giant generating sets is less likely to kill as the sitting is usually planned for suitable location and housing. This is contrary to the reckless stationing of portable generating sets, which makes them major killers as they are positioned at every available space, irrespective of hazards to life.
Apart from their killing tendencies, their noise levels are so high that they lead to loss of sleep, low concentration, impaired hearing, possible raised blood pressure, and other health challenges. These, no doubt, can breed ill-feelings among neighbours, who are also always on the receiving end.
Government has allowed this epileptic power supply to have endured for too long in the face of serial mismanagement of power resources. These failings in public power provision over the years have resulted in this total reliance on the use of personal or corporate generators for electricity supply source, instead of serving as standby. People are still lamenting the consistent erratic power supply and estimated high billings for periods of darkness.
Nigerians must form the habit of switching off their generating sets before bedtime. Positioning of newly acquired generators in shared residences must receive the approval of neighbours for safety sake. Generators should not be placed in front of market stalls or opposite nearby shops as people breathe-in the generated fumes, which have negative consequences to health.
Asthmatic patients and people with various respiratory problems are the worst hit. Nigerians cannot be so careless as to kill themselves and endanger the lives of their neighbours through reckless display of generators. They must learn to position their generators properly to serve them properly.
Inventors of electricity and manufacturers of generators did not make them to kill people. We should therefore handle generators in ways that they should not be our bane but be truly useful servants. Regular reports of deaths occasioned by generator fumes have presented generating sets as very deadly, basically because of our lack of pro-activeness in safely handling them.
Averting this deadly recurrence lies in the people as it is clearly man-made. Every gory picture of deaths through generator fumes is usually a sad reminder of worse cases that abound. Government has all it takes to enforce compliance on proper handling of generators, including charging perpetrators of generator-related death for manslaughter.
Above all, as long as epileptic power supply persists, the use of generators will be inevitable, and so long will caution be expected to be exercised in handling electricity generating sets to avoid further resultant loss of lives through their emitted fumes. Stabilizing our public power supply will avert the frequent deadly mishaps and deepen national development. This is the responsibility of government and relevant stakeholders.

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