Hello! I am back today to talk about E-waste again, but this time, I will be using a case-study, and a particularly extreme and serious one! SO time to dive straight into the content of today’s blogpost.

The place of focus today will be the Agbogbloshie area in Ghana! So specifically, this area is located in the capital city of Ghana, Accra. The Agbogbloshie area has become one of the world’s largest destinations for used electronic goods (Yeung, 2019). Due to poor governmental regulation and control, an informal sector of E-waste recycling has emerged in this area which provides job opportunities for migrants and ethnic minority groups that are unable to find jobs in the formal sector (Fischer et al., 2020). Developed countries usually export their used electronic products to developing countries as it is cheaper to get rid of it through this method as compared to using more technologically advanced method. Besides a place to work, this landfill like area is also a place where many people stay.

The workers in Agbogbloshie use primitive methods to recover valuable metals from these electronic waste. For example in order to obtain copper from these waste, cables are burned off wires, insulation on fridges and other electronic items, these leads to the release of toxic waste into the air. Furthermore, these workers are not wearing any suitable equipment to guard themselves the haphazard environment that they are working in. It was found that in E-waste workers, increased levels of cadmium and lead were found in their blood samples (Fischer et al., 2020). Lead can cause disruption of the nervous system, brain damage and even miscarriages in women, People expose to cadmium have a higher chance of having lung damage and can even cause filter mechanism problems in their kidneys (Adanu, Gbedemah and Attah, 2020).

Furthermore, it was found that there was an increased concentrations of aluminium, copper and zinc can be found in air samples (Fischer et al., 2020). According to an article on Bloomberg,  the most concerning problem that plagues the people there is respiratory illness. Other results found include elevated levels of toxic PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and arsenic in the urine samples of the workers there.

It is truly saddening for the people living in Agbogbloshie as they are unable to escape the despicable and unsanitary living and working conditions as they need to earn money. This sheds light on the people living in poverty and those who lack proper education regarding proper waste management and how they are negatively impacted by the situations that they are forced in. In the next blogpost, I will be focusing on the environmental effects from the E-waste of Agbogbloshie.

Reference:

Adanu, S., Gbedemah, S. and Attah, M., 2020. Challenges of adopting sustainable technologies in e-waste management at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Heliyon, 6(8), p.e04548.

Fischer, D., Seidu, F., Yang, J., Felten, M., Garus, C., Kraus, T., Fobil, J. and Kaifie, A., 2020. Health Consequences for E-Waste Workers and Bystanders—A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(5), p.1534.

Yeung, P., 2019. The Toxic Effects Of Electronic Waste In Accra, Ghana. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-29/the-rich-world-s-electronic-waste-dumped-in-ghana> [Accessed 3 November 2020].

Featured Image:

Chasant, M., 2019. A Young Man Burning Electrical Wires To Recover Copper At Agbogbloshie, September 2019.. [image] Available at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Agbogbloshie,_Ghana_-_September_2019.jpg> [Accessed 3 November 2020].