Companies Responsible For Egregiously Undermining Public Health In Ghana Must Be Sued

News that Johnson and Johnson has just  been ordered  by a judge to pay U.S.$572 million, as  compensation to victims of the opioids it sold aggressively in the U.S., is much welcomed. That is the sort of outcome, which civil society organisations in Ghana, such as public-interest legal NGOs should  aim for. The common-good  NGO, Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL), is leader of that  pack, in Ghana, incidentally.

Businesses  that profit from selling health-damaging products must be forced to compensate their victims - by being sued.  Full stop. As a people that is how we must proceed, if we are to seek justice for communities  across Ghana, in which there have been spikes in deaths from cancer - resulting from the poisoning of soils, streams, rivers and groundwater, with heavy metals and toxic chemicals: by all the players in the gold mining sector of our national economy, for example.

Ditto the spike in deaths from cancer caused by ingressing chemical residue on agricultural produce, such as fruits and vegetables - and from handling carcinogenic weedicides like Monsanto's infamous roundup. Companies domiciled in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, and other wealthy developed nations, profiting from selling products here that maim and kill Ghanaians, should hencefieth all be sued in law courts in the jurisdictions in which they are headquartered. Enough is enough. Haaba.

Sent from Samsung tablet.News that Johnson and Johnson has just  been ordered  by a judge to pay U.S.$572 million, as  compensation to victims of the opioids it sold aggressively in the U.S., is much welcomed. That is the sort of outcome, which civil society organisations in Ghana, such as public-interest legal NGOs should  aim for. The common-good  NGO, Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL), is leader of that  pack, in Ghana, incidentally.

Businesses  that profit from selling health-damaging products must be forced to compensate their victims - by being sued.  Full stop. As a people that is how we must proceed, if we are to seek justice for communities  across Ghana, in which there have been spikes in deaths from cancer - resulting from the poisoning of soils, streams, rivers and groundwater, with heavy metals and toxic chemicals: by all the players in the gold mining sector of our national economy, for example.

Ditto the spike in deaths from cancer caused by ingressing chemical residue on agricultural produce, such as fruits and vegetables - and from handling carcinogenic weedicides like Monsanto's infamous roundup. Companies domiciled in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, and other wealthy developed nations, profiting from selling products here that maim and kill Ghanaians, should hencefieth all be sued in law courts in the jurisdictions in which they are headquartered. Enough is enough. Haaba.

Sent from Samsung tablet.