Ban used car batteries - GSA

The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) on Wednesday renewed its call for the banning of the importation of used car batteries in Ghana; describing it as dangerous to the health of the people.

Mr. Kofi Nagetey, Deputy Executive Director in-charge of Commercial Services, GSA, said so far, there was no law in Ghana banning the importation of the used batteries, so his organisation was incapable to enforce any law to that effect.

In an answer to a question by an importer as to what GSA was doing with used imported batteries on the Ghanaian market, at a stakeholder workshop in Accra, Mr. Nagetey said the Authority had raised that issue with the authorities “but because there is no policy on that, so people continue to import such batteries at the risk of our health”.

“Such batteries emit acids and are useless, dangerous and need to be banned immediately. A lot of countries have banned such batteries, but Ghana has not banned it yet.

“These are mostly used by commercial vehicles and no wonder the many accidents are recorded on our roads,” Mr. Nagetey noted.