There are varied reasons why second hand mattresses from abroad should neither be allowed into the country nor used here at all.
Until George Masi, Managing Director, Ashfoam, one of Ghana’s leading producers of mattresses raised the issue with a cross section of editors, many did not know such products could be health hazards.
Mattresses are part of the long list of items imported into the country in the nauseating name of ‘home-second hand goods’. Just what qualifies these goods to be ‘home-made’ is incomprehensible although the description has come to stay as a Ghanaian parlance.
Be it as it may, the unknown reasons why these mattresses were discarded yet gathered by some Ghanaians whose occupation is to go searching for this category of items, for exports to their motherland can only be monetary.
If those who engaged in this business do so for monetary reasons, the buyers in Ghana are patronizing them out of ignorance and dangerously so. Were they to know that such mattresses could be the sources of unknown contagious diseases, they would most likely not go in for them.
There are good reasons why these products are dropped at the gates of residences in European countries for the garbage trucks to come pick them. Their owners could have died and since the causes of such deaths were such that the mattresses on which they yielded up the ghost could not be used by second parties, they could only be discarded.
While some diseases are contagious, it is unwise for mattresses on which victims of these diseases died to be used by others. Isn’t it wise therefore to just avoid using such mattresses to avoid possible infection by strange diseases? The answer of course is affirmative.
Mattresses, we have learnt, have life spans another possible reason spent ones are thrown away for us to pick and bring to our country for another round of life.
It is certainly not dignifying to use certain used items; among them mattresses. Of used stuff that can be tolerated for reuse, mattresses are not part. Unfortunately, these items have suddenly become the choice of many persons ignorant of the negative implications for their newfound love.
Why should we reuse mattresses discarded by others? Dignity is an important attribute of a person worth his salt. That is why we ask that something should be done about this anomaly now.
The security of the thousands of Ghanaians employed by the local mattress producers could be on the line if we sustain the second hand mattress business. The effect of this situation is a worsening unemployment situation and its negative attendant challenges.
We have learnt that second hand mattresses are outlawed in the country yet they continue to be available for their patrons.
Perhaps state agencies responsible for controlling the entry of goods into the country are not on top of their jobs. Were they to be, the numbers of these unwanted items would not have been as high as it is currently.
Education and enforcement are critical if second hand mattresses are to be stopped from their unhealthy entry into the country and their eventual patronage.