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Occupational and Environmental Health Effects of Informal Electronic Waste Recycling – A Focus on Agbogbloshie, Ghana

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Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021) (IEA 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 222))

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Abstract

The unregulated and unorganized structure of informal electronic waste recycling worksites exposes workers to numerous occupational hazards. This context also presents research challenges in collecting exposure data to establish linkages with adverse health effects and development of risk-mitigating strategies. This paper presents some findings from a 5-year multinational and multi-institutional collaboration of academic and government partners, which documented extensive occupational and environmental health conditions at the Agbogbloshie electronic waste site in central Accra, Ghana.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the 1⁄2 West Africa-Michigan CHARTER in GEOHealth with funding from the US National Institutes of Health/Fogarty Interna-tional Center (NIH/FIC) (paired grant nos. 1U2RTW010110-01 and 5U01TW010101) and Canada’s International Development Research Center (IDRC; grant no. 108121-001). Co-authors C.D. and B.M. were partially supported by the training grant T42-OH008455 from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official policies of nor endorsement by NIH, IDRC, NIOSH, CDC, and/or the Canadian and US Governments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG13, Legon, Accra, Ghana

    Julius Fobil, Augustine A. Acquah & John Arko-Mensah

  2. Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomcy (LECIAD), University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG25, Legon, Accra, Ghana

    Priscillah Abotsi

  3. Center for Ergonomics, Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2117, USA

    Clive D’Souza & Bernard Martin

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  1. Julius Fobil
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  2. Priscillah Abotsi
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  3. Augustine A. Acquah
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  4. John Arko-Mensah
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  5. Clive D’Souza
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  6. Bernard Martin
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Correspondence to Julius Fobil .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Département de génie mécanique, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB, Canada

    Nancy L. Black

  2. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    W. Patrick Neumann

  3. Toronto, ON, Canada

    Ian Noy

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Fobil, J., Abotsi, P., Acquah, A.A., Arko-Mensah, J., D’Souza, C., Martin, B. (2021). Occupational and Environmental Health Effects of Informal Electronic Waste Recycling – A Focus on Agbogbloshie, Ghana. In: Black, N.L., Neumann, W.P., Noy, I. (eds) Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). IEA 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 222. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74611-7_102

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74611-7_102

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