The human health impacts of air pollution in Agbogbloshie, Ghana
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Research proposal paper (2,500 words)
Title: The human health impacts of air pollution in Agbogbloshie, Ghana
The research proposal paper is your course project. It is an essay that demonstrates the ability of the student to describe an environmental issue and propose research that aims to explore one relevant aspect. Students are asked to describe the nature and significance of the environmental issue and to propose different ways to collect and analyze primary data in order to investigate one aspect relevant to the issue, such as its causes or its impacts. Students may also propose to conduct various studies to learn more about the seriousness of an environmental issue (its severity or/and extent). Moreover, students can choose to study the effectiveness of existing environmental policies or their implementation to address an environmental issue in a particular location.
The research proposal is not a research report. It is not intended to describe the outcome of previous research relative to an environmental issue or some of its aspects. Students are expected to do their own research to choose the appropriate research methods relevant to their research need to explore an aspect associated with an environmental issue they have identified.
The research proposal is restricted to the study of one specific aspect of a local environmental issue. While students are expected to provide a clear and comprehensive description of one local environmental issue of their choice, their research proposal should only aim to explore one aspect related to it. As students concentrate on one aspect of an environmental issue in one location, they are expected to explore the different facets that help to determine it. As an example, the human health impacts of air pollution in a small town depend on the nature and extent of the pollution as well as the exposure and vulnerability of local population to it. Therefore, the research proposal consists of describing the collection and analysis of primary data related to these components in order to determine the human health impacts of the local air pollution.
If a research on one aspect of an environmental issue was conducted at a large scale, it is possible to propose a research that investigates the same aspect at a smaller (or local) scale.
While there are multiple ways to write a research proposal, a specific format is required in this assignment to encompass all important components. A research proposal is composed of different parts. The use of pictures is not allowed as they tend to occupy too much space in your paper. The different parts of your paper should be in harmony with one another. References in text should be APA format and listed at the end of the paper in APAformat (not included in word count for the paper)
References
The references should follow the APA citation format. Do not forget to include in-text citations throughout your paper. Two references should be published materials (peer-reviewed) from scientific journals. You should have at least six (6) references that may include official government documents. You can also use United Nations, International Organizations and Non-Government Organizations official reports and policies. You should use all listed references in your text, using proper in-text citations (APA format). The references account 5% of the total grade of your paper.
Format
Your research proposal assignment should be in word document (.doc or .docx), double spaced except the references, page numbered, and in Times New Roman 12 points. No pictures are permitted in the paper. Please do not use pdf!
The main parts of a research proposal paper should include:
-. Introduction,
-. Research methodology,
-. Conclusion
i. Introduction
The introduction is the first section of your paper. It introduces the local environmental issue that you chose to describe, and the aspect that you plan to explore based on this issue. It is intended to attract the attention of the reader and guide him or her to understand what to expect in the remaining part of your paper. It carries 35 % of your research proposal paper total grade. It should include at least the description of the local environmental issue (location, nature, extent, significance, stakeholders, etc), a research objective, and hypotheses.
The description of the local environmental issue should be supported by relevant facts and figures. The significance of the issue and the importance of your research area can be highlighted by stating the potential costs of inaction. Make sure not to describe the results of the research you plan to conduct in your Introduction. As an example, if you choose to do your research on the cause of an environmental issue, you can describe the impacts of the issue and its severity (or extent) in the Introduction. However, you can talk about the result of a research similar to what you plan to do if that research was conducted at a larger scale than yours or at a different location. As an example, you can talk about the social impacts of drought in the Sahel region in your Introduction if you want to do your research on the social impacts of drought in a village (or city) in Niger, which is part of that region.
The statement of the objective of your paper or presentation is crucial in the Introduction. As it is a research objective it should aim to explore or investigate an aspect relevant to the local environmental issue that you chose. For example, your objective can be to explore the economic causes of deforestation in a village in Tanzania. You should only have one research objective exploring only one aspect relevant to the local environmental issue. Your objective should be consistent with your title. If the title is not specific enough to infer your research area, your objective should do so. As an example, if your title is the depletion of fish stock in a Kenyan river, your objective may either explore the causes or the social impacts of this issue and identify a more specific location.
Hypotheses are part of the main components of your Introduction. They refer to an educated guess, expressed by a statement that shows a correlation between dependent and independent variables. This correlation helps to provide a prediction of the outcome of the research you propose to conduct. Your hypotheses should be relevant to your research objective and determine the different elements of your research methods. You should have at least two hypotheses that are derived from the research objective. Students are encouraged to identify the variables (dependent and independent) that make up the hypotheses by doing some research on potential correlated aspects relevant to the research objective. If your research objective is to explore the causes of a local environmental issue, the aspects that reveal the issue would constitute the dependent variables while the factors that may have generated these aspects represent the independent variables. As an example, the issue of overfishing may be expressed by a significant decline in fish catch over time or the depletion of certain (vulnerable) fish species in a local coastal area. The significant catch of juvenile fish and degradation of fish habitats caused by the prevalence of the use of destructive fishing methods and unsustainable tourism activities are potential factors that may lead to both decline in fish catch and loss of certain species. In this case, the dependent variables are the amount of fish catch or/and the population of certain (vulnerable) fish species while the prevalence of the different fishing methods and the nature of coastal tourism activities constitute the independent variables. The research methodology explains how the independent and dependent variables are correlated as you test your hypotheses by analyzing the primary data you propose to collect.
ii. Research methodology
The research methodology is the most important part of your paper as it describes the different ways you will conduct your research based on your research objective and hypotheses. It accounts 35 % of the total research proposal paper grade. As your research aims to explore the correlation between independent and dependent variables, it is intended to collect and analyze data relevant to these variables in order to test your hypotheses. The research methods that you chose are therefore relevant to the data that you need and the way you plan to analyze them to test your hypotheses. Answering four specific questions helps you provide a comprehensive description of your research methodology. These questions include: what method is relevant to your research? what primary data do you need? why is your research method relevant to your data? and how do you collect and analyze your data?
Firstly, the research methodology should describe the research methods that you propose for your research by providing some information about their nature, their objective and the types of primary data that may be collected and analyzed through their use. You are welcome to use natural or social science in your research methods based on your research objective. As an example, the use of cost-benefit analysis is an economic research tool that can be used in social science while population ecology is a branch of natural science that helps to understand the dynamics of species population. At this stage, the explanation of the research methods is limited to its description and its application to a known case. It should not refer to your research project as you will have the chance to explain why these methods are relevant to the data you need. Instead, you can provide some examples of the use of the proposed research methods in other research cases. Since you are expected to collect primary data, it is not acceptable to propose desk research to collect secondary data as your main research method.
Secondly, the research methodology describes the primary data that you need based on your variables identified in your hypotheses. You are welcome to use social and natural data. Social data are data that can be collected through the use of research methods associated with social science while natural data are collected with the use of natural science. As an example, average income level of a fishing community is social and economic data while the health of coral reefs along the shore of Kenya is natural data. Moreover, you are required to propose the collection of measurable (quantitative) data in your research in order to determine the correlation between the variables. However, spatial data are also acceptable to test your hypotheses. It is important to emphasize that the research proposal should mainly collect primary data. You are therefore expected to describe the original data that you plan to collect and analyze.
Thirdly, you should describe the reason why your research methods are relevant to the (primary) data that you need. The choice of your research methods is mainly related to the data you plan to collect and analyze. However, you can also choose relevant factors that support the choice of your research methods. As an example, you can explain that the research methods produce the same data that you plan to collect and that they can also be used to analyze them.
Finally, you should describe how you will collect and analyze your data. This step may be part of the research method that you have chosen. If underwater survey is the research method that you choose to study the health of the marine ecosystem, the method for collecting data related to this method may consist of counting the number of certain fish species or taking sample of corals to learn about their health. Likewise, if water quality assessment is the research method, collecting water sample and living aquatic organisms may help determine the quality of the water. Some information about the research participants and equipment that you plan to use for your research may also be described in your research methodology.
The analysis of your data is the process that you propose to test your hypotheses. You may propose to compare data collected from different sites in order to test your hypotheses. Data collected from two different locations that may have similar physical, social and economic conditions may be compared to identify some similarities and differences relevant to the variables in your hypotheses. In addition, you may use different analytical tools to analyze your data. Geographic Information System (GIS) is an example of tool that can be used to analyze spatial data. While it is not required to fully understand the use of an analytical tool, students are encouraged to make their own research to inquire about how the tool was used elsewhere in order to provide a sufficient description of their research methodology. Statistical tool is an important way to analyze data. However, students are only required to propose their statistical analysis at the sample level (not population). In other words, the use of inferential statistics is not within the scope of this course.
iii. Conclusion
The conclusion carries 20% of your paper total grade. It includes the restatement of your hypotheses, a summary of the different parts of your paper, what you might expect from your research, your opinion, and policy alternatives that would address the issue based on your expectations. Policy alternatives incorporate various policies that the Government may need to develop to address the issue based on the potential outcomes of the research. Use different policy instruments when necessary.
Research proposal: The Human Health Impacts of Air Pollution in Agbogbloshie, Ghana
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Table of contents
TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc35423644 \h 2
1.1Agbogbloshie, Ghana PAGEREF _Toc35423645 \h 2
1.2 E-waste recycling in Agbogbloshie PAGEREF _Toc35423646 \h 3
1.3 Local workers experiences PAGEREF _Toc35423647 \h 3
1.4 Entry logistics of E-waste in Accra PAGEREF _Toc35423648 \h 4
1.5 Research objective PAGEREF _Toc35423649 \h 5
1.6 Research Hypotheses PAGEREF _Toc35423650 \h 5
2.0 Research Methodology PAGEREF _Toc35423651 \h 5
2.1 Conducting air Quality tests PAGEREF _Toc35423652 \h 6
2.2 Conducting pollutant Exposure tests PAGEREF _Toc35423653 \h 6
2.3 Conducting a public health analysis PAGEREF _Toc35423654 \h 6
2.4 The relevance of research methods PAGEREF _Toc35423655 \h 7
2.5 Data Analysis PAGEREF _Toc35423656 \h 8
3.0 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc35423657 \h 9
4.0 References PAGEREF _Toc35423658 \h 12
1.0 Introduction
Air pollution is a major global topic of discussion in the modern world amid its life-threatening effects on human health. Air pollution is a result of the introduction of harmful or excessive substances in the earth's atmosphere. Sources of air pollution include biological molecules, gases (such as chlorofluorocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, oxides of nitrogen and methane), organic and inorganic particulates. According to the world health organization, an estimated 0.13% of the total Ghanaian population dies annually due to causes directly attributed to air pollution (Alhassan & AMpadu-Mensah, 2016). In Ghana, Air pollution is a result of toxic fumes liberated by manufacturing factories, vehicle exhausts, rubbish burning, soot from cookstoves designed to use biomass fuel and dust from poor roads. Air pollution is a huge risk to human health since its attributed life-threatening ailments such as heart-related diseases, diseases related to the lungs(including cancer), an array of mental illnesses(including reduced intelligence), miscarriages, stoke among others.
1.1Agbogbloshie, Ghana
Agbogbloshie, located in Accra, the capital city of Ghana is a commercial district reputable as the hub of e-waste recycling. For this reason, it qualifies to be the ideal spot for research into the aspect of air pollution and its consequent effects on human health. Agbogbloshie is characterized by informal settlements, which resemble the nearby Old Fadama slums. These two informal settlement regions are home to an estimated 80,000 residents, based on local enumeration statistics and together comprise of Ghana's' largest urban slums (Amuzu, 2018). The main reasons for the development of the slums are immigration from rural settlements in search of jobs to the city and the noted low costs of living as compared to the developed parts of Accra. These locals, by living near the country's e-waste recycling hub, have been accustomed to the heaps of scrap electronic wastes that have for long become part of the area's geography (Daum & Grant, 2017). The social life of the local inhabitants revolves around the commercial zone with the notable development of churches, mosques, a football playground, a basketball pitch, a market place and a grazing field all amid e-waste heaps. The proximity of the Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama residents to the e-waste recycling hub consequently puts them at constant risk of airborne exposure from the byproducts emitted through the recycling of e-waste.
1.2 E-waste recycling in Agbogbloshie
Agbogbloshie commercial district majorly employs informal methods of recycling the e-waste, with an estimated 12000 workers who wade through the heaps of discarded goods. (Daum & Grant, 2017). After physically disassembling electronic gadgets, recyclers will ordinarily burn PC parts to extricate metals from plastic, metallic, and plastic covers. Copper is a typical metal for a recycler to work in as it is decently plentiful in most electronic merchandise and brings generally US$3.91 per kg in the Agbogbloshie advertise. (Daum & Grant, 2017). Copper wires are scorched to soften away their elastic coatings and make them adequate for selling. Another regular strategy for extricating metals is to consume old froth over consoles to dissolve away plastic housings to encourage the extraction of copper and iron leftovers. Burning is the main method which liberates toxins into the air and consequently into the tissues of humans.
1.3 Local workers experiences
The workers, who usually are not equipped with protective gear, experience health problems like infected wounds, severe headaches, burns, respiratory ailments, severe nausea and back problems due to the hazardous working environment and constant air pollution (Nafrah & Arko-Mensah, 2018). The absence of deterrent estimates utilized by e-waste recycling laborers subsequently is by all accounts related to low wellbeing mindfulness, a restricted feeling of organization in insuring themselves, constrained monetary methods, and absence of government-funded instruction. Laborers' resistance to working environment dangers gives additional proof of the absence of respectable work in Accra's casual economy and consequently restricted open doors for exchanging occupations. The workers do not mind the e-waste disposal in the area since it is the main source of livelihood for their families who live in the region (Nafrah & Arko-Mensah, 2018). The Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama consist of the poorest families in Ghana, and for that reason cannot afford quality health services. This aspect worsens the situation of a population that cannot afford quality medical care and yet is subjected to the worst health risks due to air pollution.
1.4 Entry logistics of E-waste in Accra
In Ghana, e-waste enters the country directly via the port of Tema, located approximately 20 miles from Agbogbloshie. Indirectly the end of life electronic products reaches Accra from other African ports like Durban in South Africa, Bizerte in Tunisia and Lagos in Nigeria. Hundreds of thousands of tons of used electronics, mainly from the United States of America and Europe are delivered in large containers (Oteng-Ababio &Grant, 2020). These shipments are usually mislabeled as 'second-hand goods or charitable donations', which makes them not to be considered as waste products during entry. Mislabeling is a common occurrence in e-waste shipments, which usually contain only 25% of the total goods in a working condition (Tutu, 2013). As a result, the amount of unusable cell phones, computers, and all other forms of e-waste continues to grow rapidly in Ghana.
1.5 Research objective
Air pollution has been cited as a major contributor to the development of an array of illnesses in Ghana according to a recent research. Agbogbloshie e-waste recycling district, being a major air pollution zone located in the densely populated capital city of Ghana, is expected to cause adverse impacts on public health. The main objective of this research proposal, therefore, is to determine the effects of air pollution on the state of health among the Agbogbloshie population.
1.6 Research Hypotheses
* If the concentration of air polluting chemicals and substances is relatively high in Agbogbloshie e-waste recycling zone, then there will be an influx of the number of recorded illnesses associated with air pollution like lung cancer, asthma, and blood poisoning.
* If the rate of air pollution in Agbogboshie e-waste recycling district is unacceptably high, then the rate of pollution related illnesses will be higher, relating to higher rates of premature deaths attributable to higher rates of chemical liberation from burning e-waste.
2.0 Research Methodology
Relevant data to this proposed research will be obtained from the local population who work or live in the e-waste recycling zone of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama slums. Local health practitioners and traditional healers will also provide first-hand information that will be useful in the research proposal. The local administration personnel will also come in handy to provide relevant data regarding the levels of air pollution experienced within the area. Data collection methods to be employed include
2.1 Conducting air Quality tests
The research will employ the skills from professional air monitoring personnel who will be able to measure the quality air in the e-waste recycling region of Agbogbloshie. Ambient air testing will be essential to detect the levels of polluting chemicals present in the adjacent areas, the rates of air pollutant deposition and the toxicity of the prevalent chemicals from the e-waste recycl...
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