Some vehicles exerting smoke on the road
Motorists and commuters within Accra metropolis have expressed concern about the rate at which some taxi and trotro vehicles in the city exert smokes from their exhaust pipes.
This, they pointed out, causes air pollution and comes with some attendant repercussions that only results in sicknesses and environmental diseases.
According to them, the situation keeps getting worse day-by-day and urged the police to keep eagle eyes on such vehicles.
They held that in recent times this development seemed to be doing the nation more harm than good since these trotro and taxi drivers exert deep black smokes from their exhausts.
Air pollution is estimated to cause approximately 1 billion premature deaths worldwide per year. More than half of this burden is borne by people in developing countries.
One of the many forms of pollution, air pollution occurs inside homes, schools, and offices in cities.
Air pollution makes people sick: it causes breathing problems and promotes cancer; and also harms plants, animals, and the ecosystems in which they live.
Some air pollutants return to earth in the form of acid rain and snow, which corrode statues and buildings, damage crops and forests, and make lakes and streams unsuitable for fish and other plant and animal life.
“The little I know about air pollution is that it is the addition of harmful substances to the atmosphere resulting in damage to the environment, human health, and quality of life. So when these things happen the smoke pollutes the atmosphere and when inhaled may result in Asthma and other air-borne diseases,” one of the concerned motorists expressed.
“These smokes which have become very harmful to our health have been overlooked for far too long by the police MTTU and it is high time something was done about it,” a passenger at the Accra Tema station said.
In 2007, the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that more than 1.5 billion people living in the urban areas have dangerous high levels of air pollution which could lead to outbreak of various diseases.
It is against this background that the concerned commuters and motorists called for the need to ensure that such vehicles are monitored from all angles of the city and if possible banned on the roads.