200 million at risk from toxic pollution: environmentalists

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide risk exposure to toxic pollution, environmental groups warned Monday, publishing a list of the world’s worst areas, including an African processing site for European electronics.

“We estimate that the health of more than 200 million people is at risk from pollution in the developing world,” said Richard Fuller, who heads U.S.-based environment watchdog the Blacksmith Institute.

The institute and Green Cross Switzerland published a new top 10 list of the “World’s Worst Polluted Places” ― their first since 2007 ― based on more than 2,000 risk assessments at contaminated sites in 49 countries.

West Africa’s second largest processing area for the world’s swelling piles of electronic waste, at Agbogbloshie in Ghana’s capital Accra was among new additions.

Each year, Ghana imports around 215,000 tons of secondhand consumer electronics, mainly from Western Europe ― a number that is expected to double by 2020, according to the report.

The main health concern linked to e-waste processing in Ghana is the burning of sheathed cables to recover the copper inside, the report said, pointing out that the cables can contain a range of heavy metals, including lead.

Soil samples from around Agbogbloshie have shown concentrations of that toxic metal that are 45 times more than accepted levels, the report said. (AFP)