Bacteria and Their Antibiotic Resistance Profiles in Ambient Air in Accra, Ghana, February 2020: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Inappropriate use of antibiotics has led to the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in ambient air. There is no published information about the presence and resistance profiles of bacteria in ambient air in Ghana. We evaluated the presence and antibiotic resistance profiles of selected bacterial, environmental and meteorological characteristics and airborne bacterial counts in 12 active air quality monitoring sites (seven roadside, two industrial and three residential) in Accra in February 2020. Roadside sites had the highest median temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and PM10 concentrations, and median airborne bacterial counts in roadside sites (115,000 CFU/m3) were higher compared with industrial (35,150 CFU/m3) and residential sites (1210 CFU/m3). Bacillus species were isolated in all samples and none were antibiotic resistant. There were, however, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas species, non-hemolytic Streptococci, Coliforms and Staphylococci species, of which six (50%) showed mono-resistance or multidrug resistance to four antibiotics (penicillin, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone). There was a positive correlation between PM10 concentrations and airborne bacterial counts (rs = 0.72), but no correlations were found between PM10 concentrations and the pathogenic bacteria nor their antibiotic resistance. We call for the expansion of surveillance of ambient air to other cities of Ghana to obtain nationally representative information.

E-waste interventions in Ghana.

Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) has become an emerging environmental and human health problem in the world in the 21st century. Recently, the developing nations of West Africa (e.g. Ghana and Nigeria) have become a major destination for e-waste worldwide. In Ghana, the e-waste recyclers use primitive methods (mechanical shredding and open burning) to remove plastic insulation from copper cables. This technique can release highly toxic chemicals and severely affect the environment and human health if improperly managed. It is as a result of the adverse impact on human health that some interventions are being made in Ghana to reduce exposure. The present mode of recycling/dismantling, which happens at Agbogbloshie must be replaced by official receiving/recycling centers to be established. Currently, equipment to strip both large and small cables are available in the country via the Blacksmith Institute (USA) and it is expected that the e-waste workers will embrace the use of these machines. This technology will go a long way to help prevent the burning of e-waste and will be replicated in other smaller e-waste centers in the country.

Determination of levels of polychlorinated biphenyl in transformers oil from some selected transformers in parts of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

Although polychlorinated biphenyls have never been manufactured in Ghana, it has been used extensively as dielectric fluid in electric transformers and capacitors. However, very little is known of its health and environmental impacts by both managers of these transformers and capacitors and also the general public. This work therefore seeks to explore INAA as a possible alternative to screening transformer oils for PCBs by determining the total chlorine content. The total chlorine content of transformer oil samples from Ghana that tested positive and some randomly selected samples that tested negative from screening using CLOR-N-OIL test kits, have had their total chlorine estimated. INAA using the Research Reactor located at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission was used to estimate the total chlorine content of the oil samples. Neutron Activation and gamma ray spectroscopy using HPGe detector coupled to MAESTRO 32 software was used to determine the total chlorine content by integrating the peak area of the spectrum into a simplified program that was developed from the activation equation. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis was able to validate the result obtained from the test kits screening with accuracy 7.5%. The minimum total chlorine content of the positive samples determined by NAA was 71.34 µg g⁻¹.