This paper reviews e-waste practices and aggregates the toxicity levels of organic compounds in different environmental media and human body fluids resulting from e-waste recycling activities in Ghana. Literature was searched from three academic databases (Science Direct, SpringerLink and PUBMED). Research articles published in English from 2010 to 2018 were selected in addition to reports of country studies. In all, 13 documents passed the inclusion criteria. E-waste recycling practices in Ghana were found to be mainly rudimentary. The major organic contaminants found in soils, air, sediments, food and body fluids of people exposed to e-waste recycling activities are PAHs, PCBs, Dioxin-like PCBs, PCDD/Fs, PBDD/Fs and PBDEs. The concentration of PCBs in the blood of e-waste workers and breast milk of nursing mothers at the recycling areas were respectively 0.082 µg/g (blood) and 3.64 ng/g lipid wt (breast milk). PAH was 3.94 µg/g creatinine in the urine of e-waste workers and 4,822 ng/g (median) in the soils at open burning areas. PCDD/F was 12.1 pg/g lipid base WHO₂₀₀₅-TEQ per year in the blood of e-waste workers and 988 pg TEQ/g in sediments of a shallow lagoon near the largest e-waste recycling site. Further studies are required to establish the levels of organic contaminants in air, water and foodstuffs at e-waste recycling sites and body burdens of children living or illegally working at e-waste recycling sites.

The ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine has the potential to address the challenge of access to improved sanitation in built-up low-income settings. However, its conventional technical design fails to address the needs and preferences of some users. The objective of this paper was to test the technical performance of modified engineering designs of the technology to respond to some preferences of toilet users. The entry of air from multiple windows in the superstructure and installation of insect screens in windows were tested in an experimental VIP latrine. The modified design achieved the recommended ventilation rate of 20 m³/h when a vent pipe diameter of 150 mm was used. The study concludes that adopting a multidirectional airflow design leads to a lower ventilation rate as compared to the conventional design. However, when fitted with the recommended size of vent pipe, this modified design achieves more than twice the recommended ventilation rate with or without an insect screen installed in the windows. Nevertheless, the practice in which 100 mm diameter vent pipes are used with insect screens installed in windows is likely to lead to odour problems due to inadequate ventilation through the vent pipe.

The ventilated improved pit latrine has the potential of meeting the sanitation needs of many households in developing countries and enhance the chances of attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. However, some user adaptations of the technology appear to conflict with conventional design guidelines and may compromise the ventilation rate in the vent pipe. This would negatively affect the odour control function of the technology. This paper seeks to evaluate existing conventional design guidelines that are aimed at controlling odour and fly nuisance in the latrine to highlight their relevance and possible conflicts with existing and emerging user adaptations. It also identifies potential structural modifications that may be adopted to accommodate emerging user preferences without compromising the odour control mechanism. The review shows that, indeed, some construction practices such as provision of windows in multiple sides of the superstructure adversely affect the ventilation rate and could lead to odour problems. However, the effects of some suspected unfavourable user adaptations such as use of closed-top vent caps and ceramic seats with covers have not been investigated. Furthermore, recent studies have demonstrated the possibility of compensating for the negative effect of some user preferences with favourable environmental conditions such as high wind speed and structural modifications using a mathematical model. However, the existing model fails to account for some key design criteria and needs to be improved to make it useful for a wider application.