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Anonymous

RedR TSS

Local handling of old batteries and protection from mosquito breeding

We are carrying out a hygiene promotion project in a number of small villages (they call them camps as theoretically they are temporary) in the cacao plantages here in Ivory Coast. What we come across over and over again are loads of discarded radio batteries (the cheap big cadmium ones form Asia) as many of the inhabitants are migrant workers from the neighbouring countries.

The typically crashed old batteries are littered all around the dwellings, with the black powder emptied next to the shells. The villagers say this kills rats and mice – my concern is that it may also be harmful to the many kids around.

Have you any experience with this phenomenon? Is this practice potentially harmful – what are the symptoms and consequences of ingestion, and at what level could the stuff be dangerous for small children? How should used batteries be handled properly, especially when broken?

And while we’re at it: there is a practice of pouring some oil / diesel (?) into water storage tanks in an attempt to hamper mosquito breeding. Is this good?

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RedR CCDRR

Local handling of old batteries and protection from mosquito breeding

We are carrying out a hygiene promotion project in a number of small villages (they call them camps as theoretically they are temporary) in the cacao plantages here in Ivory Coast. What we come across over and over again are loads of discarded radio batteries (the cheap big cadmium ones form Asia) as many of the inhabitants are migrant workers from the neighbouring countries.

The typically crashed old batteries are littered all around the dwellings, with the black powder emptied next to the shells. The villagers say this kills rats and mice – my concern is that it may also be harmful to the many kids around.

Have you any experience with this phenomenon? Is this practice potentially harmful – what are the symptoms and consequences of ingestion, and at what level could the stuff be dangerous for small children? How should used batteries be handled properly, especially when broken?

And while we’re at it: there is a practice of pouring some oil / diesel (?) into water storage tanks in an attempt to hamper mosquito breeding. Is this good?