A Professor of Environmental Chemistry, Prof. David Kofi Essumang of the Department of Chemistry of the 黑料社, has stated, that pesticides have become an inevitable food additive in Ghana.
The eminent chemistry scholar, made the above statement when he delivered his inaugural lecture on the theme An Environment In A 鈥淒ITCH鈥� at the university.
The lecture highlighted the causes, effects and some management strategies to deal with Ghana鈥檚 environmental challenges. Some of the environmental challenges facing the country include waste management, legal and illegal mining, logging deforestation soil, water and air pollution. Others are the destruction of biodiversity, desertification, climate variability and change, mismanagement of chemicals and industrial discharges.
Prof. Essumang described the environment as 鈥渆verything that makes up our surroundings and affects our ability to live on the earth鈥� and added that it becomes polluted when micro-organisms, chemicals, toxic substances, waste and waste water are introduced into the air and water bodies. 鈥淲e depend on the environment and the environment depends on us鈥�, he said. 鈥淲e all need to work together to solve the problem of environmental pollution since we are all at risk鈥�, he declared.
It came to light during the lecture that the use of pesticides has become so pervasive and causing a lot of damage to the environment and food crops such as watermelon and okro sold in the open market.It was revealed that exposure to pesticides could result in Neurological disorders, Parkinson鈥檚 diseases, Childhood Leukemia, Lymphoma, Asthma and many more.
Looking at the trend of Pesticides use in Ghana, Prof. Essumang indicated that even though the use of DDT for example has been banned for the past twenty years it was still being used. 听鈥淒DT existence in the Ghanaian environment shows that manufactures conceal the chemical in their products smuggled through our porous boarders鈥�.
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He said research has shown that systemic pesticides get into the plant, saying 鈥淲hen we make the plant itself poisonous to predators, one has to wonder what (or who) else it鈥檚 poisoning鈥�. 听He called for proper inventory of all chemicals used in Ghana since it has been realised that most of them have not been registered.
He lamented the wanton destruction of wetlands in the country by developers without any regard to its consequences to the environment.听 He said every water flows into water and 鈥淕od in his wisdom designed the system to be self-cleansing so we have wetlands to sanitise or remove chemicals in the water before it gets into rivers. Wetlands remove heavy metal pollutants by trapping the sediments and holding it鈥�.
Prof. Essumang called for a change in our environmental policy since it lacks direction. 鈥淭he policy does not have specific indicators that can be measured over a time frame. 听There is also no indication in the policy showing government commitment towards the attainment of the goals in the document鈥�. He advocated for Environmental education to be incorporated properly in the educational system and also a second look given to mining activities in Ghana.