By the time your child learns to crawl, tens of thousands of babies will have died in Nigeria. In 2012 alone some 16,000 died in their first month of life due to the devastating health effects of oil spills. These are preventable deaths. Seventy percent, some 11,000, would have survived at least the first year if they had not been exposed to oil in their daily lives, according to the study The effect of oil spills on infant mortality: Evidence from Nigeria, published by the Navarra Center for International Development.

Every year thousands of newborns die breathing and drinking hydrocarbons that attack their bodies. Some are condemned to carry diseases from genesis by their father's contaminated sperm and others contract it during the gestation process through the umbilical cord or the mother's tissue.

We know from years of research that oil is harmful and kills. But knowing how it kills, who it kills and where it kills can only be known if we give time, trust and resources to scientific research that reveals a hidden reality. Discovering a problem is the first step in working to combat it. Investment in research involving empirical-analytical methods is fundamental to fight poverty and prevent alarming human tragedies.

Nigeria, one of the richest countries in oil reserves, recorded 6,637 spills between 2005 and 2015. Whether due to maintenance errors, vandalism of pipelines or theft of fuel oil, spills abound in the country. The study cited above delves into the effects these cause on those families who live side by side with the fuel oil reserves.

Swiss researchers Anna Bruederle and Roland Hodler of the University of St. Gallen, who pioneered the study, concluded that oil spills doubled the mortality rate during the first month of life for mothers who became pregnant after a spill, while the effects for those in late pregnancy were much lower. They also found that surviving children grew up with lower weight than their height.

Pioneering research such as this is an example of the need to invest in quality programs of study to discover unknown realities. Only with empirical-analytical methods can we obtain the data from which we can form an opinion adjusted to reality.

We cannot find effective solutions to universal problems such as poverty if we do not know their causes. To prevent human tragedies such as the deaths of thousands of babies contaminated by oil in Nigeria, we must first know that this is indeed happening, and for this scientific research is increasingly necessary.