The unseen danger from prolonged exposure by mechanic apprentices to the liberal use of petrol for hand washing
1 Department of Radiology, De Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, Nigeria.
2 Department Ear, Nose and Throat, Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, Nigeria.
3 Department of Family Medicine, Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, Nigeria.
Review
International Journal of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences Archive, 2026, 11(02), 124-128.
Article DOI: 10.53771/ijbpsa.2026.11.2.0044
Publication history:
Received on 15 March 2026; revised on 12 May 2026; accepted on 15 May 2026
Abstract:
The density of vehicles and tricycles, in our nation is very high and most people in the community have an active vehicle for transportation. As is often reported, several families that can afford it do have more than one vehicle either a car or tricycle or perhaps a motorcycle for family use or foe commercial purposes.
Notably, many of those vehicles are imported from abroad (overseas) as fairly used entities. Those already used vehicles are popularly referred to in our local parlance as ‘’second hand’’ or as ‘’tokunbo’’ vehicles. They do not come cheap in anyways. These implies that these vehicles may have multiple mechanical and electrical challenge, and they are usually sold as they were on arrival. The new buyer/owner would subsequently have to effect multiple repair on their new purchase. These repairs are done by the ubiquitous mechanics that are readily found at every available space, ably assisted by their numerous apprentices that are being trained in the act of car maintenance. Here, works are done manually and everyone gets stained by the continuous close contact with car grease and several types of lubricants that are used in these mechanic workshops. Herein, lies the suspected health risk, because to clean off these dark stains, everyone washes off with petrol which readily cleanses off the oily stains. This short article is aimed at determining if this act of washing with petrol poses any long-term risk to the practitioners.
Keywords:
Grease/lubricant stains; Hand wash; Petrol; Used vehicles
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Copyright © 2026 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0