As air pollution continues to worsen in Ghana, road toll collectors have been identified as the most vulnerable.
They spend long hours on the road and inhale toxic emissions from vehicles, leaving many with serious health problems.
This has come to light amidst calls for the government to reintroduce road toll collection which was ceased in 2021, rendering about 700 workers jobless.
In an interview with Adom News, some former toll workers appealed to government to put in place the necessary measures to safeguard their health.
40-year-old Kingsford Dawun is a physically challenged person, who is a former tollbooth worker said the poorly-ventilated toll booth he sat on the Amasaman-Nsawam road was always filled with exhaust fumes.
As someone who was delighted to be recruited in 2020 after years of job hunting, his joy was cut short because the tollbooths were closed a year later while his health suffered.
“Most of the time I cough and feel heavy pains around my chest and lungs because of the emissions. So when we lost our jobs, I decided to seek proper medical attention but was not entirely surprised when the doctors at the Nsawam Government Hospital told me I had a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” he said.
Another former tollbooth worker, Emmanuel Abona also disclosed he participated in a health screening at Amasaman where signs of smoke damage to his chest and lungs was detected.
Upon further tests and medical examination, Emmanuel was diagnosed with a lung disease.
The doctor told me I have lung disease. My Lungs are darkened full of smoke and he asked me if I was a smoker. I told him I work at the toll booth.
Emmanuel and Kingsford’s predicaments are typical of former tollbooth workers nationwide, the Ghana Toll Workers Union secretary, Duncan Edward said, citing himself.
Mr Duncan is therefore advocating for compensation or health packages for tollbooth workers should the government reintroduce it as well as benefits for former workers.
Almost 40 percent of Ghana’s air pollution is caused by transport emissions, mostly from vehicles.
These emissions contain extremely small particles that can travel through the blood stream to cause damage to vital organs such as the heart and lungs.
Confirming this, the Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching, Dr. Oware Ampomah said vehicular fumes contain dangerous substances and gases which can kill.
He said toll workers in Ghana are at greater risk of diseases such as asthma and lung cancer.
“The fumes can kill if you inhale it continuously. It can give you lung and heart disease.”
Evidence from several countries, including China and the United States has shown the dangers to toll workers.
The Metropolitan Director of Health Services, Dr. Abena Okoh, expressed concern over the rapidly increasing cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Accra, highlighting cardiovascular ailments as a leading cause of death among the aged and middle-aged.
She cited environmental pollution and unhealthy lifestyles as major causes of the diseases.
Explaining further, Dr. Okoh stated that hypertension is the fifth biggest cause of death in Accra for three consecutive years – from 2021 through 2023.
The Health Director revealed that a total of 38,826 hypertension cases recorded in Accra health facilities had the following breakdown; 12,451 in 2021, 12,671 in 2022 and 13,704 in 2023.
According to her, asthma followed on the log with 1,364 in 2021, 2,112 in 2022 and 1,661 in 2023.
Cardiac diseases placed seventh, posting 418 cases in 2021, 249 in 2022, and…in 2023.
The Accra Metro Health Directorate reckons stroke as an important disease too, with 187 cases having been recorded in 2021, 304 in 2022.
On fatalities caused by the environmental pollution-engendered NCDs, the Health Director told Adom News about 200 Accra residents died from cardiovascular diseases during the three years under review.
Dr. Okoh assured that many deaths from non-communicable diseases are preventable, if communities and policymakers put in place right measures to minimise environmental pollution.
Paediatric Pulmonologist and a Senior Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Sandra Kwarteng Owusu said if government indeed plans to re-open the toll booths workers will need protection.
“I think if the ignition of vehicles is constantly on and there are people at the toll booths daily, weekly, monthly any protective clothing then potentially it could be equally harmful directly as direct smoking will be,” she said.
A Public Health Expert at the University of Ghana, Dr. Reginald Quansah noted that, physically challenged persons are particularly vulnerable and are better off unemployed than working in poorly-ventilated booths without protection.
“Disabled are vulnerable to smoke it is because a wheelchair’s height places their airways closer to vehicle emissions. The smoke can kill them easily,” he bemoaned.
Some experts and opinion leaders like the MP for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku have urged the government to adopt technologies that remove the need for workers in toll booths.
Regional Manager of the Ghana Highway Authority, Emmanuel Odai says government is putting measures in place to build new automated booths with few manual booths.
“We wish we stop toll workers going back to sit at the toll booths so that we have electronic booths but when we do that people will be unemployed. When we are done constructing new tool booths we will provide them nose masks,” he said.
On long term measures, former CEO of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu has proposed the re-introduction of vehicle emissions testing.
This, he believes would ensure that vehicles that emit toxic fumes above a certain maximum are not allowed to ply the roads until their engines have been fixed to improve air quality.
“We are going to make sure drivers whose car engines are not fit for the road will be asked to go and repair engines and return to the road, failure to do so will attract punishment,” he cautioned.
This report was produced in collaboration with New Narratives with funding from the Clean Air Fund.
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