Fuel station poses hazard to Family Health Hospital

If authorities responsible for regulating Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) do not move in fast, a potentially explosive situation is likely to be recorded as a company called the AI Energy Group constructs a petrol station, just behind the Family Health Hospital at Teshie, opposite the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre.

According to observers, the lives of patients who seek medical attention at the facility are at the precipice of danger with the clearly controversial on-going construction work.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Health, the Municipal Assembly (LEKMA), and the Ghana Health Service (GHS), among other institution, are responsible for the regulation of the location of such petroleum interest, but it appears the AI group has started this construction at the blind side of these institutions.

Residents of Teshie are peeved with the construction work and the Republic newspaper gathered that they may soon initiate moves to stop the construction work.

This paper gathered that the AI Energy has been warned several times to halt its construction works but has ignored the warnings. The Republic newspaper gathered that representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Town and Country Planning, EPA, NPA, LEKMA, and representatives from the Family Health Hospital have all met with the AI group to convince them to stop the construction.

Information gathered is that recently, a minor fire at the filling station caused the intervention of Military personnel, before the fire escalated into an uncontrollable inferno.

Patients receiving treatment at the hospital had to run for their dear lives during the incident, the Republic gathered.

The imminent danger to the health facility, according to experts could be both violent such as a potential fire outbreak or subtle such as respiratory problems caused by the constant inhalation of fumes from the fuel station by patients and workers in the health facility.

According to a GHS report some of the health risks that could emanate from the petroleum products the paper gathered are, Acute and Chronic Respiratory Distress Syndrome will become more severe.

Other evidence from report regarding health risks from exposure to products containing Benzene and its derivatives, include increases risk of leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, fetal malformations and premature births.

Other major health hazard associated with the siting of the Filling Station close to public places, according to the GHS is the fact that the Teshie health facility l carries out In-Vitro-fertilization (IVF) so there could be possible destruction of the embryos and babies, and deformities.

Information available is that apart from the Teshie community that forms majority of the Family Health Hospital’s patients, it also caters for patients from far and near within the Greater Accra Region and other regions.