The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will this June, introduce exhaust emission standards to rid smoldering vehicles off the road.

The exercise, the EPA says is long overdue but will help reduce the rate at which people are exposed to high concentration of particles emitted from smoking vehicles.

Dr. Samuel Adu Kumi, Head of Environment and Quality Department at the EPA, disclosed this on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

"A lot of pollution is going round; some of them, you can even see it and with your own imagination measure that these are high contaminants, which are heavier...it's like a smoking environment," Dr. Adu Kumi noted.

Thousands of people particularly, hawkers and commuters are said to be most vulnerable to the hazardous chemicals emitted by vehicles as a result of spending longer hours on the road, thereby, risk contracting lung infections through the continuous inhale of the pollutants. 

Unfortunately, the EPA could not do much to control the situation because currently, there are no standards to measure the level of toxins emitted into the atmosphere by smoking vehicles.

      

However, Dr. Adu Kumi said the first approach will be a major step towards ensuring that the atmosphere is cleaner and healthier.

"This year, we want to put in place that kind of standard that will check the exhaust fume emissions from vehicles.

"At least, it will be the baseline for checking some of these things; it will take a lot of [smoking] vehicles off the road," he assured.

Collective responsibility

In a related development, Alhaji Iddrisu Huseini, the Deputy Director in-charge of Vehicle Inspection and Registration at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), has called on the public to join in the campaign by reporting smoking vehicles to the authorities.  

Contributing to the discussion via phone, Alhaji Iddrisu Huseini emphasized that road safety was a collective responsibility, which must be shared by all.

"It is not the work of only DVLA; it is not the work of only Road Safety [Commission] neither is it the work of only the vehicle owner. When you find as an individual, any vehicle that is smoking, you have every right as a citizen to report it to any enforcement agency".

     

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Alexander Kwaku Obeng, Director of Education, Research and Training at the Motor Transport and Traffic Department of the Police Service emphasized that it was the responsibility of vehicle owners to ensure their vehicles are road worthy.

"We want all vehicle owners to also know that if you own a vehicle... your responsibility is that on daily basis those vehicles are maintained", he cautioned.