Remarkably, current Pb and Pt levels in roadside soil from the coastal
area of Accra (Pb 291 μg/g; Pt 15 ng/g), where the introduction of
second-hand catalytic converter-equipped vehicles is relatively
recent, are of the same magnitude order as, respectively, precatalyst
Pb levels and current Pt levels after at least two decades of catalytic
converter use in Europe and the USA (Kylander et al., 2003). Further,
Pb exposure was comparable in both coastal urban metropolitan and
rural communities of Accra (Ankrah et al., 1998) whereas it was tenfolds
higher than in the inland metropolitan area of Kumasi