AMA confiscates cigarettes at public toilets, warns smoking can cause explosion

• The AMA has confiscated some five dozens of cigarette boxes at public toilets in Accra.

• The exercise was done to avoid any activity that could cause explosions.

• The public health officers from the AMA visited places like Roman Boys, Koolo Moomo, and Gamoth.

Some over 50 packets of cigarettes being sold at some public toilets in Accra, posing threats to the facilities they were found at, have been confiscated by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).

Public Health officers from the Assembly confiscated the cigarettes on Thursday when they embarked on an inspection of public places of convenience in the Ablekuma South Sub- Metropolitan District as part of measures to improve the standards and maintain strict hygienic conditions.

Head of the Public Health Department, Florence Kuukyi, who led the team explained that "smoking in the public toilet can lead to explosion since a piece of the live cigarettes can mistakenly fall into the drop hole which is full of gases," a statement said.

She cautioned patrons of public toilets to desist from smoking in the facility to avoid any disaster.

The team visited the Roman Boys, Koolo Moomo, Gamoth, Tee Garden public toilets where they discovered defective septic tanks that were not airtight exposing the excreta to flies, newspapers and other printed materials being sold for anal cleansing.

They also observed the non-existence of disinfectants in almost all of the facilities visited for cleaning and issued notices to attendants to abate the nuisance to improve hygiene.

Some patrons who were patronizing the facility at the time of inspection commended the AMA for its proactiveness and urged them to strictly enforce the bye-laws to benefit the entire community.