Approximately nine million people died and 86 million crippled annually across the globe, due to chemical exposure, Professor Kirk Semple, the Director of International Research, Lancaster University, United Kingdom has said.
He said chemical exposure was also linked to many chronic diseases, with about two million people having cancers and related diseases, globally.
Prof. Semple, an environmental microbiologist said this when speaking at the Eighth Public Lecture of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Sunyani and warned Ghana to stem illegal mining activities or to prepare to face the consequences soon.
He was the key speaker at the lecture held on the theme: “From pollution to the circular bioeconomy: an international research journey” and jointly organised by the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science and the Public Lecture Committee of the university.
Prof. Semple said one in every 12 humans died due to chemical exposure, saying between 400,000 and one million people die every year in Africa because of disease related to mismanaged waste including diarrhoea, malaria and heart disease and cancers.
He explained that indiscriminate waste disposal practices could introduce hazardous chemicals into the soil, water bodies, and the air, and thereby causing long-term, potentially irreversible damage to local flora and fauna.
That negatively impacted biodiversity, harming entire ecosystems, and entering the human food chain.
Transporting, processing, and disposing of waste generated Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and airborne pollutants that contributed to climate change, he stated.
Prof. Semple said it was projected that by 2050, the volume of waste would triple from 174 million tonnes per year as of 2016, to approximately 515 million tonnes per year across Africa.
“Africa’s average waste collection rate is 55 per cent of all the existing waste materials”, he stated, saying more than 90 per cent of the continent’s waste was disposed of at uncontrolled dumpsites and landfills, often followed by open burning.
That leads to environmental pollution and thereby negatively impacting human health, Prof Semple added, indicating that about 57 per cent of the waste currently dumped was organic that could provide significant socio-economic opportunities for Africa countries.
GNA