ABSTRACT
Mosquito coil is the preferred anti-mosquito product in low income communities because it is cheap and readily available. Burning mosquito coils indoors generates smoke that can repel mosquitoes effectively. However, the smoke contains pollutants of health concern such as carbon monoxide, acenaphthene, penanthrene and benzo(a)pyrene. This study was designed to determine the effect of exposure to mosquito coil smoke on memory, learning, oxidative stress and histological changes. Twenty-eight (28) adult male Wistar rats were randomly grouped into four (4) with group I serving as control and exposed to ambient air while the experimental group II was exposed to mosquito coil smoke for 1hour,group III for 2hours and group IV for 3hoursin a partially ventilated chamber for twenty-eight (28) consecutive days. Analysis of the results collected showed statistical significant difference in short-term memory (33.7�14.7, 21.9�4.0, 28.2�10.4 and 36.1�6) at p<0.05 in the smoke exposed groups. No statistically significant difference was noticed in learning and motor activity (p>0.05). Interestingly, significant difference was recorded in the oxidative stress maker and in the trace elements analysis which could have resulted in the histopathological changes observed in the study. This results of this study showed that exposure to mosquito coil smoke causes deficit in short term memory and leads to oxidative stress in adult Wistar rats by altering some trace elements.