The press in Ghana on Friday highlights that some 20,000 people die annually through air pollution.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr. Ebenzer Appiah-Sarpong, who disclosed this, said out of the figure, 2,800 lives were lost in the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), adding that the number is projected to shoot to 4,600 by 2030.
“Results from a study of Burden Diseases in Ghana in 2010 showed that lower respiratory ranked second to malaria among the top 10 diseases with more than 14,000 deaths from exposure to household air pollution and 3,000 deaths of children under five years from exposure to household air pollution,” Mr. Appiah-Sarpong.
He explained that the health hazards of air pollution vary and it often based on how much a person is exposed to pollutants and results in accute respiratory infections to long term emphysema, lung cancer and cataract.
The Daily Graphic for its part, said the Minister of Health, Dr. Kweku Agyman-Manu, has revealed that health sector has a target to recruit 54,892 professionals by the close of the year.
The figure would include a backlog of professionals who completed training in the year 2012 to 2016, following a ban on employment for economic reasons by the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) Administration.
The Business and Financial Times, on the other hand, says the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) has projected that the country’s economy will grow slower than government’s projection.
According to the research institute, the economy will grow by 6.5 percent as against the projected 7.6 percent by the government.
DAP/GIK/APA