IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i14p8477-d860351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Occupational Exposure among Electronic Repair Workers in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Stine Eriksen Hammer

    (National Institute of Occupational Health, Gydas vei 8, 0363 Oslo, Norway)

  • Stephen L. Dorn

    (Team Analytics and Environment, Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology, University of Münster, Schlossplatz 3, D-48159 Münster, Germany)

  • Emmanuel Dartey

    (Department of Chemistry Education, Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development, Mampong P.O. Box 40, Ghana)

  • Balázs Berlinger

    (National Institute of Occupational Health, Gydas vei 8, 0363 Oslo, Norway
    Current address: Department of Animal Hygiene, Herd Health and Mobile Clinic, University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest, István u. 2., H-1078 Budapest, Hungary.)

  • Yngvar Thomassen

    (National Institute of Occupational Health, Gydas vei 8, 0363 Oslo, Norway)

  • Dag G. Ellingsen

    (National Institute of Occupational Health, Gydas vei 8, 0363 Oslo, Norway)

Abstract

Electronic repair workers may be exposed to lead, mercury, cadmium and other elements including rare earth elements used in electronic equipment. In this study, repair work took place in small repair shops where, e.g., televisions, radios, video players, compact discs and computers were repaired. Personal full-shift air samples of particulate matter were collected among 64 electronic repair workers in Kumasi (Ghana) and analysed for 29 elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Results showed that air concentrations of all elements were low. The highest air concentration was measured for iron with a geometric mean concentration and geometric standard deviation of 6.3 ± 0.001 µg/m 3 . The corresponding concentration of Pb and Hg were 157 ± 3 ng/m 3 and 0.2 ± 2.7 ng/m 3 , respectively. The cerium concentration of 5 ± 2 ng/m 3 was the highest among the rare earth elements. Source apportionment with ranked principal component analysis indicated that 63% of the variance could be explained by the repair and soldering of electronic components such as batteries, magnets, displays and printed circuit boards. An association between concentrations of lead in the workroom air and lead in whole blood was found (Pearson’s correlation coefficient r = 0.42, p < 0.001). There was, however, no statistically significant difference between whole blood lead concentrations in the workers and references indicating that lead did not exclusively originate from occupational exposure.

Suggested Citation

  • Stine Eriksen Hammer & Stephen L. Dorn & Emmanuel Dartey & Balázs Berlinger & Yngvar Thomassen & Dag G. Ellingsen, 2022. "Occupational Exposure among Electronic Repair Workers in Ghana," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8477-:d:860351
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8477/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8477/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Merve Sahan & Mehmet Ali Kucuker & Burak Demirel & Kerstin Kuchta & Andrew Hursthouse, 2019. "Determination of Metal Content of Waste Mobile Phones and Estimation of Their Recovery Potential in Turkey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-14, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yingjun Wu & Guiying Li & Taicheng An, 2022. "Toxic Metals in Particulate Matter and Health Risks in an E-Waste Dismantling Park and Its Surrounding Areas: Analysis of Three PM Size Groups," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-15, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeynep Ozsut Bogar & Askiner Gungor, 2023. "Forecasting Waste Mobile Phone (WMP) Quantity and Evaluating the Potential Contribution to the Circular Economy: A Case Study of Turkey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-38, February.
    2. Jariya Budnard & Sutha Khaodhiar, 2022. "Estimating the Generation of Discarded Mobile Phones and Highlighting Areas for Recycling Precious Metals from Printed Circuit Boards in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Xiao-Shan Yang & Xiao-Xue Zheng & Tian-Yu Zhang & Ying Du & Fengru Long, 2021. "Waste Electrical and Electronic Fund Policy: Current Status and Evaluation of Implementation in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-27, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8477-:d:860351. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.