Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review oil spill incidents and pipeline vandalism in Nigeria between 1970 and 2006 and to examine the potential danger posed by such activities to public health.Design/methodology/approach – The approach adopted to achieve this objective is questionnaire administration on health impacts. Also secondary sources of information come from textbooks and journals. However, data from natural resources exploitation and hazards are collated and analyzed.Findings – It is evident that, out of the 1,000 reported oil spill incidents analyzed, some hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are lost to the environment. Graphic pictures of typical oil spill through acts of vandalism in Ishiagu, Ebonyi State, Nigeria are analyzed and reviewed. The run‐off and sedimentation of this pollutant in fresh water systems severely degrade water quality, affect fish spawning and aquatic invertebrates' habitats, thus lowering food web productivity. Incidentally the spill‐over effect on humans ...