The Bokajan Cement Plant of CCI is around 350 kilometres from the city of Guwahati and around 21 kilometres from the Dimapur Airport. Annually, the plant produces around 1,98,000 MT per year by using the dry process of manufacturing. The area composed of the factory, the mining area and the township. Bokajan Cement Corporation of India (C.C.I) factory is one of the 3 functional units of a total number of 10 units of cement industries in India, which is fully owned by the Central Government of India. The date of commencement of production was 1st April, 1977. Fresh air is vital to maintain the balance of life on this planet. However, to sustain a healthy life in a healthy environment is becoming ever more tough because of pollutants emitted from different industries, power plants, agricultural activities, transportation, fuel burning, stone grinding factories, and natural phenomenon (Darçın, 2017; Sharma et al. 2002). Being the widely used component in building construction, cement manufacturing industries are one of the most common reason of air pollution, surface and ground water pollution and noise pollution and thus continuously destroying the resources by polluting the environment. The European Environment Agency, 2013, defines air pollution as “the presence of contaminants or pollutant substances in the air at a concentration that interferes with human health or welfare, or produces other harmful environmental effects”. Air pollution according to the Florida Administrative Code, 1982, is the presence of any one or more substances or pollutants in quantities which are or may be harmful or injurious to human health or welfare, animal or plant life, or property, or unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property including outdoor recreation. The process of cement manufacturing emits various types of hazardous substances such as particulate matters, Sulphur oxide, Nitrogen oxide and Carbon dioxide along with heavy metals like nickel, cobalt, lead, chromium, etc. (Baby et al. 2008). These environmental devastations have significant consequence on and health of the workers working in the factory as well as the communities who reside nearby cement industries (Afolabi et al. 2012). According to Abdul-Wahab,2006 and Chukwu, 2016, in different stages of cement production, there is release of dust. Due to this dust pollution many pollutions related diseases such as cardio-vascular diseases, pulmonary diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, skin diseases, hair fall, eye problems etc and many more continue to increase at a frightening rate that affects quality of life (Mehraj et al. 2013; Meoet al., 2013; Adak et al., 2007; Tajudeen et al. 2011). In a study by Yhdego 1992, it was revealed that a higher percentage of related diseases occurred near the source of pollutant.
It is a universal fact that frequently occurred health problems can cause clear impact on family’s monthly income and eventually happiness. Mwai and Muriithi (2016), found that Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) have more severe impact on household income and can reduce it by 28.64 percent. In India approximately 73 million working days are lost each year due to waterborne disease (Pathak, 2015). Besides, Adekunle and team (2015) analysed the effect of cement externalities on technical efficiency of cassava-based farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria and concluded that there was a negative impact of cement emission on the work efficiency of the people residing near the cement factory. As a significant risk factor, air pollution affects general well-being of people who are continuously exposed to the pollutants. In a study of Murat Darcin (2014; 2017) it was found that good air quality is significant to people’s quality of life, happiness, life satisfaction, and optimistic view. Arif and team (2016), stated that the relation between well-being and air quality is one of the essential issues in public policy designing. Ng and Fisher (2013) were concerned about the well- being of an individual as a critical issue for the societal development. Wellbeing of every individual is very important for the well being of the society and the nation at large. Thus, this study was aimed at to understand if dust emission from Bokajan CCI cement factory had any effect on normal life of people residing in the vicinity with the following objectives.
- To estimate the quantity of cement dust accumulation in the vicinity area.
- To observe the effect of cement dust on selected household activities in the vicinity area.
- To determine the effect of cement dust on general well being of the selected community.
Null Hypothesis: Performance of the respondents of the vicinity area is independent of the exposure to dust.
Operational Definitions:
- Effect: In this study effect refers to direct or indirect influence of cement dust exposure on human health and performance.
- Performance: Performance in the study refers to accomplishment of household work by people in the vicinity area with respect to pre-set standards.
- Wellbeing: The general wellbeing here refers to the condition of good health and its influence on family, social satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment and personal fulfilment.