Market women, street vendors urged to wear nose masks daily as a protection from air pollutants

A Biomedical Scientist and senior lecturer at the University of Cape Coast Department of Biomedical Sciences, has called on some groups of people including street vendors and market women to make the wearing of nose masks a habit.

Commuters are also encouraged to regularly put on masks as a protective measure against inhaling harmful substances in the atmosphere.

These categories of people, according to Prof. Kofi Amegah are some of the most vulnerable groups to diseases associated with air pollution, including Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

Speaking to Mx24 News on the occasion of UN’s international day of clean air for blue skies, celebrated annually at 7th September, Prof. Amegah said it is not easy to identify a polluted air and protection is recommended to reduce the risk of contracting these diseases.

“Market women are one of the groups that are most vulnerable to air pollution because they sell on the streets and also in the market centers where they are, usually the traffic around the place is very densely populated.

“Besides market women too, I’ll say street vendors…we have found health outcomes like cardiovascular and respiratory outcomes among these groups in Accra population,” he told Mx24 News.

He is urging government to provide an “alternative livelihood strategy” for street vendors and market women to move them off the streets cut down on the exposure.

In the interim, he has advised these categories of people to resort to wearing nose masks while they carry out their trade.