Public Payphones Can Be a Health Risk - Doc

A senior doctor at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has warned the public on the need to be conscious of how they use public payphones, as they could easily get themselves infected with air-borne diseases.

According to him, respiratory and air-borne diseases, such as pneumonia, throat, chest and nasal infections, could be easily transferred from one person to another through the use of public telephone handsets which, he said, most at times are not disinfected regularly.

This was revealed to Chronicle in an interview with the head of Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department, Dr. Danso Adams, while dilating on the issue.

Dr. Adams said the issue should be treated as a serious public health problem since it affects every citizen in the country, lamenting that " most people who use these payphones are even not aware of the danger it poses to their health and, to me, that complicates the issue at stake."

Chronicle firther gathered that most of the payphones are used over a long period without their being cleaned and those located at remote and dusty areas cannot be reached to be given proper supervision and maintenance.

Continuing, Dr. Adams noted that one person could speak for a long time on one payphone and in the process spill saliva and would hang up for another person to use the same phone without cleaning the handset.

This process, he said, results in accumulation of germs on the handset that could easily be passed on to another person through inhalation as one speaks and takes in deep breath.

He, therefore, cautioned that because the payphones are not disinfected and the appropriate authorities to do so cannot be relied on, individuals should take up that responsibility to clean the handsets with cotton soaked in alcohol or any antiseptic before speaking into it and they should wash their hands after using the payphones.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the manager responsible for payphones, at Ghana Telecom, Mr. Devine D.K. Kpetigo, he revealed that his organization had embarked on a cleaning exercise at some vantage points where the use of these payphones is high, naming White Chapel, a shop in the heart of Makola, as one of the vantage points.

He denied allegations that the company had failed to supervise the thorough disinfecting of these payphones.

Elaborating on how the disinfecting process takes place, Mr. Kpetigo noted that because Accra and, for that matter, the whole country cannot be attended to at a particular time, the cleaners usually focus on areas where there is high patronage and areas that are very remote.

These areas, he added, " are cleaned everyday under my strong supervision and I make sure the work is properly done."

According to him, because Accra is very dusty, most of these payphones get dirty within the shortest time and have to be cleaned again and again, but he was quick to add "that does not mean we do not do our job well."

Continuing, Mr. Kpetigo revealed that Ghana Telecom was mapping out a strategy which would ensure that payphones that had been scattered across the city centers and localities would be installed at one major point where there are full of activities so that proper supervision and maintenance would be given to them daily.

For this strategy to be successful, Mr. Kpetigo warned that "people should be very mindful about how they use the payphones, asserting that some unscrupulous people insert all sorts of objects into the machines in a bid to minimize the use of their units on the telephone cards.

Mentioning coins, blades and cigarette foils as some of the objects used to manipulate these machines, he lamented that the company loses millions of cedis in replacing parts have been tampered with, adding that "parts are even very difficult to obtain and has to be imported from outside countries".

He, therefore, called on customers and the public to refrain from such acts of cheating, expressing the hope that in due course more payphone machines would be installed to meet the increasing demands of the public.