Simultaneous targeted and non-targeted analysis of plastic-related contaminants in e-waste impacted soil in Agbogbloshie, Ghana

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

“…Concentrations of Pb in the soil of the Agbogbloshie burning site range between 100 and 35,300 mg kg −1 [5,36]. Our findings for organic pollutants align with existing literature, also identifying waste burning as a major source of organic pollutants in the Agbogbloshie Scrapyard [32,49].…”

“…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].…”