Babies getting cancer after drinking contaminated milk from nursing mothers at Agbogbloshie
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed that it has information about reported cases of babies contracting cancer as a result of being fed by nursing mothers who have been exposed to toxic waste at Agbogbloshie in Accra, YEN.com.gh can report.
Nursing mothers are reportedly feeding their children with metal-infested milk and the cases of diseased children is steadily growing.
Agbogbloshie has been described as the biggest dumping site for electronic waste in West Africa.
Myjoyonline.com reports that GHS director, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, is blaming the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others for a lack of action.
The revelation on the menace ongoing at Agbogbloshie came to light during a radio discussion of the master's dissertation of a Ghanaian woman by name, Eunice Matilda Mends.
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Mends' Public Health focus was on “Heavy Metal Contamination in Breast Milk and Cow Milk at Agbogbloshie”. It is not clear if there was prior publicly available document on the matter before Mends' research.
She reveals that the effect of smoke from processing electronic waste at Agbogbloshie on breastfeeding babies has damaged central nervous systems and caused intellectual and cognitive deficiencies.
The latter situations are characterised by a reduction in Intelligence Quotient (IQ), hyperactivity, cancers, lung disease and impaired cognitive functions in the children.
It is most likely that these babies will lag behind in the social order of things seeing that they come from poor backgrounds too. the report said.
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The issue at Agbogbloshie has been described as a social justice problem. The area is heavily populated by poor young people who moved from northern Ghana to find better economic opportunities.
Some activists have called on Ghanaians to sue the government into acting quickly to resolve an environmental, economic and social issue.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
