‘Away’ is a place: The impact of electronic waste recycling on blood lead levels in Ghana

E-waste recycling remains a major source of livelihood for many urban poor in developing countries, but this economic activity is fraught with significant environmental health risk. Yet, human exposure to the toxic elements associated with e-waste activities remains understudied and not evidently understood. This study investigates the impact of informal e-waste processing on the blood lead levels (BLLs) of e-waste workers and non-e-waste workers (mainly females working in activities that serve the Agbogbloshie e-waste site), and relates their lead exposure to socio-demographic and occupational characteristics. A total of 128 blood samples were analysed for lead levels. Surprisingly, the mean BLL (3.54 μg/dL) of non-e-waste workers was slightly higher than that of e-waste workers (3.49 μg/dL), although higher BLLs ranges were found among e-waste workers (0.50–18.80 μg/dL) than non-e-waste workers (0.30–8.20 μg/dL). Workers who engaged in e-waste burning tended to have the highest BLLs. In general, the BLLs are within the ABLES/US CDC reference level of 5 μg/dL, although 12.3% of the workers have elevated BLLs, i.e. BLL ≥ 5 μg/dL. The study concludes that the impact of e-waste recycling is not limited to workers alone. Traders and residents within the Agbogbloshie enclave are equally at risk through a range of environmental vectors. This calls for increased public awareness about the effects of human exposure to lead and other toxic elements from e-waste recycling. A key contribution is that government and stakeholder projects for safe e-waste infrastructure should disaggregate the e-waste value chain, recognize differential risk and resist one-size-fits-all strategies.