Increasing deaths in country due to air pollution

THE INCREASING DEATHS IN THE COUNTRY DUE TO AIR POLLUTION AND MEASURES TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM AS GHANA OBSERVE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

Environmental degradation is one of the biggest global issues of our time with air pollution taking centre stage.
The UN recognising this, in 1974, set aside the 5th of June every year to draw global attention to the destruction of the environment and its health implication on man. The day has been observed since then but under different themes. The global theme for this year is: “Air Pollution”. This is because globally about seven million people die annually due to polluted air. Of this number 3.8 million of them die as a result of house hold exposure to smoke from fuel wood for cooking.

People mostly affected by smoke due to cooking are women from developing and middle-income countries.
Also, 43 percent of all lung diseases and lung cancer are attributed to air pollution. WHO Global Ambient Air Quality data says 97 percent of cities in low and middle – income countries with more than 100 thousand people do not meet the Organisation’s air quality guidelines.
It says decline in air quality increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory diseases including asthma in people in low income countries.

In 2015, about 2800 people in Accra died due to effects of air pollution. The causes of air pollution include fuel combustion from vehicles, industrial facility, municipal and agricultural waste, as well as burning from dump sites.
It is against this background that Ghana is observing the day on the theme ” Clean Air, Our lifeline and Shared Responsibility” As part of events preceding the day, the Environmental Protection Agency last week embarked on an outreach programme to sensitize identified groups like fish processors, kenkey sellers, scrap dealers and the GPRTU at Agbogbloshie to the harmful effects of open burning, vehicular emissions and air pollution in general.

The outreach program introduced the groups to some technologies such as improved cooking stoves to women who use firewood for cooking. The scrap dealers are aware of the effects burning electric cables have on their health and environment, hence the e- waste recycle facility to be built there. On vehicular emissions, the sulphur content of fuel products has been reduced from three thousand Parts Per Million, PPM to 50 PPM since 2017. This is due to health issues associated with high sulphur in the environment. What hasn’t reduced is the soot from old vehicles on our roads, posing a health risk to motorists and those who trade along the roads. what is likely to address this is a guideline on vehicular emissions based on which emissions from vehicles will be tested while testing a car for it roadworthiness.

On addressing smoke inhalation while cooking, LPG and improve cook stoves are effective ways of addressing the problem, but these are way too expensive for most people.

This is a major reason why most people in urban areas still use firewood. That notwithstanding modern ways of cooking protect lives, reduces time element in food preparation, reduces the burden on the girl- child regarding chores and enhances her academic work and wellbeing of women. What will reduce burning at dump sites and protect communities in these areas is recycling of plastics and processing of household waste into manure.
Until these are done including massive education, all efforts at addressing air pollution will amount to nothing.

Script was by Joyce Gyekye