Exposure to toxicants in soil and bottom ash deposits in Agbogbloshie, Ghana: human health risk assessment

Obiri, Samuel; Ansa-Asare, O.D.; Mohammed, Saada; Darko, H. F.; Dartey, A. G.

doi:10.1007/s10661-016-5575-x

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Moreover, the flame retardants in e-waste plastics reduce the burning temperature leading to the formation of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds [28]. Recent studies show a clear link between pollution levels and emissions from informal e-waste recycling worldwide and in Ghana [5,7,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. The pollutants follow various pathways, depositing and diffusing into soil, water, and ambient air, potentially entering the human body through ingestion, inhalation, or dermal contact, leading to diseases such as cancer and others [27,41,42].…”

Section: Managing E-waste In Ghana and The Role Of The Informal Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Impacts on Soil and Groundwater of Informal E-Waste Recycling Processes in Ghana

Owusu-Sekyere,

Aladago,

Leverenz

et al. 2024

Sustainability

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This study examines the environmental impacts of informal e-waste recycling processes in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, which is one of the most notorious e-waste recycling sites in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite being unsafe and unorganized, the informal sector is still actively involved in dismantling, extracting, and disposing of e-waste in unauthorized locations on a considerably large scale. However, the academic research on the environmental consequences of informal recycling practices is limited. Soil and groundwater samples for five important and representative informal e-waste recycling processes and one related oil process were collected and analyzed to determine heavy metal-, PBDEs, PCBs, CBs, and PAHs concentrations. Contamination indices were used to assess and compare the effects of informal recycling processes, thereby providing a geochemical evaluation of soil conditions. As a result, the manual dismantling of CRT and ICT devices is the major source of heavy metal pollution. Furthermore, the burning of e-waste plastic for waste reduction purposes and the oil collection process substantially contribute to the input of organic pollutants. Regulatory measures for CRT and ICT recycling would result in an 85% reduction of heavy metals and the enforcement of a compulsory collection system for plastic and oil would eliminate 86% of the organic pollutants.

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Section: Managing E-waste In Ghana and The Role Of The Informal Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Impacts on Soil and Groundwater of Informal E-Waste Recycling Processes in Ghana

Owusu-Sekyere,

Aladago,

Leverenz

et al. 2024

Sustainability

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“…A variety of cancers have also been associated with heavy metal exposure (Fasinu and Orisakwe, 2013;Obiri et al, 2016a;Obiri et al, 2016b). Low levels of selenium was associated with the development of breast cancer (Alatise et al, 2013), as was higher levels of lead for infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma (Alatise and Schrauzer, 2010).…”

Section: Health Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Workers have reported moderate to prominent levels of perceived stress as measured via Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (Burns et al, 2016). Higher levels of a few chemicals related to e-waste recycling have also been associated with increased cancer risks (Obiri et al, 2016a).…”

Section: Health Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Health Research in Africa: Important Progress and Promising Opportunities

Joubert

Mantooth²,

McAllister

2020

Front. Genet.

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The World Health Organization in 2016 estimated that over 20% of the global disease burden and deaths were attributed to modifiable environmental factors. However, data clearly characterizing the impact of environmental exposures and health endpoints in African populations is limited. To describe recent progress and identify important research gaps, we reviewed literature on environmental health research in African populations over the last decade, as well as research incorporating both genomic and environmental factors. We queried PubMed for peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, or books examining environmental exposures and health outcomes in human populations in Africa. Searches utilized medical subheading (MeSH) terms for environmental exposure categories listed in the March 2018 US National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, which includes chemicals with worldwide distributions. Our search strategy retrieved 540 relevant publications, with studies evaluating health impacts of ambient air pollution (n=105), indoor air pollution (n = 166), heavy metals (n = 130), pesticides (n = 95), dietary mold (n = 61), indoor mold (n = 9), per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs, n = 0), electronic waste (n = 9), environmental phenols (n = 4), flame retardants (n = 8), and phthalates (n = 3), where publications could belong to more than one exposure category. Only 23 publications characterized both environmental and genomic risk factors. Cardiovascular and respiratory health endpoints impacted by air pollution were comparable to observations in other countries. Air pollution exposures unique to Africa and some other resource limited settings were dust and specific occupational exposures. Literature describing harmful health effects of metals, pesticides, and dietary mold represented a context unique to Africa. Studies of exposures to phthalates, PFASs, phenols, and flame retardants were very limited. These results underscore the need for further focus on current and emerging environmental and chemical health risks as well as better integration of genomic and environmental factors in African research studies. Environmental exposures with distinct routes of exposure, unique co-exposures and co-morbidities, combined with the extensive genomic diversity in Africa may lead to the identification of novel mechanisms underlying complex disease and promising potential for translation to global public health.

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“…Another study 7 analysed metals from the Agbogbloshie site and calculated the risk factors to workers. In this study, the risk factors were shown to exceed the US EPA cancer risk value 8 ; recommendations were subsequently made for governmental intervention to improve the conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using elemental analyses and multivariate statistics to identify the off-site dispersion from informal e-waste processing

Mudge

Pfaffhuber

et al. 2019

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts

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Exposure to toxicants in soil and bottom ash deposits in Agbogbloshie, Ghana: human health risk assessment

Cited by 13 publications

References 11 publications

Environmental Impacts on Soil and Groundwater of Informal E-Waste Recycling Processes in Ghana

Environmental Impacts on Soil and Groundwater of Informal E-Waste Recycling Processes in Ghana

Environmental Health Research in Africa: Important Progress and Promising Opportunities

Using elemental analyses and multivariate statistics to identify the off-site dispersion from informal e-waste processing

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