Ghana soil shows severe contamination

Ghana soil shows severe contamination

By Jake Thomas, Resource Recycling

On the heels of Ghana's report [1] on the effects of electronic waste in the country, the United Nations' Solving the E-waste Problem has found alarmingly high levels of heavy metals in some areas of the country.

Contamination levels of lead, cadmium and other hazardous materials of over 50 times above safe levels [2] were found in the Agbogbloshie neighborhood of Ghana's capital, Accra. The contamination test results were shared by Ghana researcher Atiemo Sampson at the Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP-Initiative) Summer School, which was hosted this summer in Europe by Philips and Umicore. Sampson tested soils from within an informal e-scrap processing site in Agbogbloshie and at a nearby church, market and school, and found increased contaminations levels at all sites.

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