The Water Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is calling for a ban on what it calls “primitive recycling of e-wastes” due to the hazardous chemicals it produces.
During an in-house review seminar by the institute on Wednesday, one of its Researchers, Dr Kwadwo Ansong Asante, revealed that carcinogenic compounds are released into the atmosphere during the burning of e-waste to retrieve copper and other materials.
“Once these chemicals are released into the atmosphere it settles on food stuff and some people also inhale this chemical compounds which are carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting, which means they can interfere with our hormones and our respiratory organs,” he said.
Instead of the open-air combustion, he recommends that wire-stripping equipment and other proper dismantling methods should be used.
He said his study into the burning of e-waste, which is a huge business at Agbogbloshie in Accra, reveals that the concentration of Iron and Lead in the urine of e-waste recycling workers was significantly higher.
He has appealed to the government to continue the construction of a modern recycling plant that was started by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
In a related development, the Water Research Institute is also calling on the government for financial support conduct a research on the causes of lip discoloration among some people in the Volta Basin.
So far lip discoloration has been attributed to the consumption of pygmy herrings, or “weive” as it is locally called and the frequency of their intake, however, there has not been a scientific study into this claim.
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