Browsing by Author "Owusu-Ansah, E.D.J."
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Item Environmental health risks and benefits of the use of mosquito coils as malaria prevention and control strategy(Malaria Journal, 2018-07) Hogarh, J.N.; Agyekum, T.P.; Bempah, C.K.; Owusu-Ansah, E.D.J.; Avicor, S.W.; Awandare, G.A.; Fobil, J.N.; Obiri-Danso, K.Background Malaria is an infectious disease that causes many deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. In resource-poor malaria endemic communities, mosquito coils are commonly applied in households to repel the vector mosquito that transmits malaria parasites. In applying these coils, users have mainly been interested in the environmental health benefits potentially derived from repelling the mosquito, while oblivious of the environmental health risks that may be associated with exposure to emissions from the use of mosquito coil. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the mosquito coil, ascertained and/or estimated the toxic emissions that may emanate from the coil, and determined its overall appropriateness by conducting a risk–benefit analysis of the use of this strategy in malaria prevention at household levels. Methods The repellent ability of mosquito coils was tested by conducting a mosquito knockdown/mortality test in experimental chambers synonymous of local room spaces and conditions. The gaseous and particulate emissions from the mosquito coil were also analysed. Additional scenarios were generated with the Monte Carlo technique and a risk–benefit analysis was conducted applying @Risk software. Results Mosquito mortality arising from the application of various mosquito coils averagely ranged between 24 and 64%, which might not provide adequate repellency effect. Emissions from the mosquito coil were also found to contain CO, VOCs, SO2, NO2, PM2.5 and PM10. The Hazard Index of the respective pollutants characterized over a lifetime exposure scenario was low (< 1 for each pollutant), which suggests that the concentrations of the specific chemicals and particulate matter emitted from the mosquito coil may not constitute adverse environmental health risk. Conclusion Although the risk of morbidity from the use of the mosquito coil was low, the coil yielded limited protection as a mosquito avoidance method. It may, therefore, have a reduced benefit in controlling malaria and should be applied sparingly in a highly regulated manner only when traditionally proven effective vector control strategies are not available or too expensive for resource-poor malaria endemic regions.Item Groundwater fluoride contamination and probabilistic health risk assessment in fluoride endemic areas of the Upper East Region, Ghana(Chemosphere, 2019-05-29) Gibrilla, A.; Ganyaglo, S.Y.; Teye, E.M.; Owusu-Ansah, E.D.J.; Tettey, S.; Diabene, P.Y.; Asimah, S.Groundwater fluoride contamination has long been recognized as a water-related health issue in some parts of Ghana. However, the extent of fluoride contamination and the related human health risk to the communities in the fluoride endemic areas are not adequately studied. In this paper, fluoride concentrations in existing and newly drilled wells were assessed. Probabilistic non carcinogenic human health risk assessment, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis for three age groups (Group A: 0e10 years; Group B: 11e20 years; Group C: 21e72 years) was also carried out using Monte Carlo simulation technique. The results showed that, 27.27% and 15.38% of the existing wells in the Bongo and Kassena Nankana West districts have fluoride values above the guideline value 1.5 mg L 1 respectively. The non-carcinogenic risk of fluoride associated with oral ingestion recorded a mean Hazard Quotient (HQ) > 1 for younger age group (0e10 years) in all the study areas signifying potential health risk to this age group. Additionally, when the upper 95th percentile is used for the HQ, the oral ingestion for all the age categories recorded an HQ > 1. Sensitivity analyses indicated that fluoride concentration in the drinking water and ingestion rate were the most relevant variables in the model to reduce the potential health effect. The study established the basis for a strong advocacy and public awareness on the effect of water quality on human health and proposed some management strategies to guide future groundwater resources management to reduce the potential health risk to the population.