Figure 1 - uploaded by Jack Caravanos
Content may be subject to copyright.
![Regional map of Ghana. Source: MAGELLAN Geographics, 1992 [15].](profile/Jack-Caravanos/publication/283787676/figure/fig1/AS:449062244753408@1484076191063/Regional-map-of-Ghana-Source-MAGELLAN-Geographics-1992-15.png)
Source publication
![Figure 1. Regional map of Ghana. Source: MAGELLAN Geographics, 1992 [15].](profile/Jack-Caravanos/publication/283787676/figure/fig1/AS:449062244753408@1484076191063/Regional-map-of-Ghana-Source-MAGELLAN-Geographics-1992-15_Q320.jpg)
Associations between contaminated land and socio demographics are well documented in high-income countries. In low- and middle-income countries, however, little is known about the extent of contaminated land and possible demographic correlations. This is an important yet sparsely researched topic with potentially significant public health implicati...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... is a lower middle-income West African country with a well-developed heterogeneous industrial base. The country is home to 25 million residents, the vast majority of whom live in a number of densely populated cities along the southern coast (see Figure 1). Chemical production and metals smelting and processing are among the largest contributors to the formal industrial economy, while informal car battery recycling, artisanal small-scale gold mining, and scrap recycling are industries of most interest in the informal sector. ...
Similar publications
Rapid population and economic growth quickly degrade and deplete forest resources in many developing countries, even within protected areas. Monitoring forest cover change is critical for assessing ecosystem changes and targeting conservation efforts. Yet the most biodiverse forests on the planet are also the most difficult to monitor remotely due...
Citations
... Many of the studies reviewed, however, did not provide adequate details about the study design or relied on targeted or convenience sampling, which may not yield representative results. For example, the TSIP database of contaminated sites in LMICs is based on targeted "hot spots" in which a small number of samples are collected from areas perceived to have the highest concentrations rather than follow-ing a random or systematic sampling protocol (Blacksmith & Green Cross Switzerland, 2012;Caravanos et al., 2012;Caravanos, Fuller, & Robinson, 2014;Dowling, Ericson, Caravanos, Grigsby, & Amoyaw-Osei, 2015;Ericson, Caravanos, Chatham-Stephens, Landrigan, & Fuller, 2013). Although recent guidance recommends a more robust sector-based sampling approach for this program (Pure Earth, 2019), prior studies utilizing the TSIP database rely on historical sampling data (Caravanos et al., 2012Chatham-Stephens et al., 2013Ericson et al., 2016). ...
Risk analysis offers a useful framework for evaluating and managing environmental health risks across different settings. In this Perspective, we question whether the principles and practice of risk analysis could be beneficial in the context of land‐based pollution in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) to better support risk‐based decision making. Specifically, potential health and economic impacts from land‐based pollution in LMICs has become an increasing issue of concern due to widespread environmental contamination from active and legacy operations, particularly informal activities that are becoming increasingly dispersed throughout communities, such as used lead acid battery recycling, artisanal and small‐scale gold mining, and small‐scale tanneries. However, the overall magnitude and scale of the public health problem arising from these sources remains highly uncertain and poorly characterized and cannot be compared to land‐based pollution in high‐income countries due to unique factors. This lack of knowledge has negatively affected the political priority and level of funding for risk mitigation actions targeting land‐based pollution in these countries. Our primary objective is to raise further awareness of this emerging issue among risk analysts and decisionmakers and to advocate for more robust and focused research. Here, we highlight the types of industries and activities contributing to land‐based pollution in LMICs and describe key findings and knowledge and data gaps that have hindered a fuller understanding of this issue. We also discuss how several risk assessment and risk management approaches might be useful in this resource‐constrained context. We conclude that a combination of risk analysis approaches may be worthwhile, but more work is needed to determine which methods or tools will be most informative, technically feasible, and cost‐effective for identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating land‐based pollution in LMICs. Affected researchers, funding agencies, and local or national governments will need to work together to develop improved study designs and risk mitigation strategies.
... In the past three decades, Ghana, just like other developing countries, has experienced a high rate of urbanization, characterized by poor physical planning and development, peri-urban area expansion, and unavailability of land (Amoateng et al., 2013;Boamah et al., 2012;Cobbinah et al., 2015). These characterizations have resulted in developments on and near the former refuse dump and landfill sites, metal scrap yards (Figure 1), and old garages (Dowling et al., 2015). Governments in other jurisdictions like Europe and North America would consider the preceding sites as contaminated lands due to the nature of contaminants that may be on or under these sites regulate and control development activities on such sites. ...
Ghana lacks an environmental policy on contaminated land. This commentary aims at suggesting a proactive risk-based contaminated land management policy by presenting precedents of land contamination and environmental disasters from developed jurisdictions and how lessons learned improved environmental regulation. In Ghana, however, when contamination and environmental disasters happen, they are hardly investigated, and even if investigated, recommendations are not implemented. Then, a summary of the United Kingdom's Contaminated Land Policy framework is presented and it is demonstrated that Ghana has the professionals to implement the policy. Recommendations are presented for future implementation of a contaminated land policy in Ghana.
... Many environmental factors, from exposure to pollutants to impacts of natural disasters, are underpinned by deep social, economic, or racial/ethnic disparities [54][55][56][57][58][59]. Thinking of the refugee woman fleeing the conflict and violence ravaging her country or the little boy suffering from malnutrition and multiple infections, the danger of reducing the expsome to biomakers is particularly great. ...
Across the lifetime, each person will experience and accumulate countless exposures to the natural, built, social, and chemical components of the environment. These exposures occur in many ways, through people’s behaviors and lifestyle choices (for example, smoking, diet, or level of activity), physical contact (intentional or not) with chemicals, structures, or physical forces (for example, heat waves or hurricanes), or interactions with people, institutions, policies/laws, and geopolitical forces (for example, war). Whatever a person’s lifetime exposures may be, scientists believe that they affect human health in important ways, contributing either to the development of disease or to maintenance of good health. In the field of public health, exposures are called “risk factors” if they contribute to disease and “protective factors” if they contribute to health. This chapter discusses these factors.
... 24, including two studies in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands), as expected . Among the studies published outside the WHO European Region and not in the U.S., two were carried out in Australia [83,84], three in China [85][86][87], two in Latin America [88,89], and one in Canada [90], Ghana [91], India [92], and South Korea [93]. Studies carried out in the U.S. not only are more numerous, but represent a wide variety of study design: (i) the analysis were both at the national level and at local scale, in this latter case allowing inferences at different area/population levels (county, city/town, census block, community); (ii) the spatial distribution of sources of contamination was identified usually together with a quantification of emissions and in some studies exposure was modeled; and (iii) in some studies the dimension of health was considered and in one study both individual and community data, allowing at the same time the assessment of both inequalities and their mechanisms, were used [53]. ...
In the WHO European Region the topic of contaminated sites is considered a priority among environment and health themes. Communities living in or close to contaminated sites tend to be characterized by a high prevalence of ethnic minorities and by an unfavorable socioeconomic status so rising issues of environmental justice. A structured review was undertaken to describe the contents of original scientific studies analyzing distributive and procedural justice in industrially contaminated sites carried out in the WHO European Region in the period 2010–2017. A systematic search of the literature was performed. In total, 14 articles were identified. Wherever assessments on environmental inequalities were carried out, an overburden of socioeconomic deprivation or vulnerability, with very few exemptions, was observed. The combined effects of environmental and socioeconomic pressures on health were rarely addressed. Results show that the studies on environmental and health inequalities and mechanisms of their generation in areas affected by industrially contaminated sites in the WHO European Region are in their early stages, with exemption of UK. Future efforts should be directed to improve study strategies with national and local assessments in order to provide evidence for equity-oriented interventions to reduce environmental exposure and related health risks caused by industrial contamination.
... Hazardous waste sites occurring from past or ongoing intensive exploitation of natural resources or poorly controlled industrial and mining activities are an important source of exposure to metals [25][26][27][28][29]. Poor or marginalized populations are more likely to live close to toxic waste sites and suffer the health burden of exposure [30]. The metal smelter in La Oroya, Peru [31] stands as one somber example, but there are many more around the world. ...
... The second challenge is that, often, the population affected by lead includes women and children, particularly in low-income or marginalized segments of the population [30,41]. These groups are disconnected from each other (for example, some live in remote areas, others are domestic workers), and all tend to be poorly informed about their own exposure, its local prevalence or health consequences. ...
Lead exposure is a legacy issue that continues to affect vulnerable population groups globally, but particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICS). We take a multi-disciplinary approach to examine the patterns of lead exposure in these countries, discuss the underlying injustices and socio-political causes, and the economic costs that are associated with exposure. We conclude with some lessons we drew from our discussion of lead across the disciplines and advocate for a number of approaches to solving this ongoing issue. These include (i) biomonitoring that could be integrated into existing health surveys or public health programs targeting young children; (ii) greater civic engagement to push for solutions; and, (iii) environmental control policies that represent a continuum of local, context-specific to broad, national-level, and even global approaches.
... The author wishes to make the following correction to this paper [1]. Due to mislabeling, we replaced the original caption of Figure 1: ...
The author wishes to make the following correction to this paper [1].[...].
Communities where polluting human activities are sited often show disadvantage in terms of social and economic variables. Environmental distributive justice studies seek to identify common characteristics in exposed populations and highlight the presence of environmental inequalities.
We have conducted a review of the existing literature about justice in the distribution of health hazards from industrial pollution. We included papers investigating associations between social disadvantage and contamination through assessments at national or macro-area level. From each study we extracted: indicators for the social determinants of exposed communities (classified according to PROGRESS-plus categories); definition and measurement of environmental hazard (as either proximity to contamination sources, exposure to emissions or health impacts from pollutants); study design and methods; significant results.
We retrieved 45 eligible articles. Most publications were from USA and had a nationwide scope with data at municipal/sub-municipal scale. Socioeconomic position and race/ethnicity were the social determinants most often explored, followed by occupation and education; air pollution was the commonest sort of contamination, while proximity prevailed as measurement of hazard. All papers found significant associations between social dimensions and health hazard from industrial contamination: the majority of associations supported an increased burden on vulnerable categories, especially ethnic minorities and unemployed – however, several relationships were found in the opposite direction or in both ways, particularly with wealth and education, reflecting a mixed reality where potential discrimination in siting decisions coexists with socioeconomic benefits for nearby communities due to industrial development. Assessments of environmental distributive justice are lacking in most countries and those that are conducted show vast methodological heterogeneity. We recommend consistency in models and indicators, the inclusion of female-led households among indicators of social disadvantage, and the adoption of a small scale to elicit significant findings and provide meaningful policy action.
