24/02/08

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Ghana Standards Board (GSB) has threatened to prosecute importers of used Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders, since the used cylinders are the main causes of explosion and fires in homes.
The Board said it would invoke the Legislative Instrument (LI) 1968 (2001) which states, inter alia, that in exercise of the powers conferred on the minister responsible for Trade and Industry, under Section 12 and 13 (a) of the Export and Import Act, 1955 (Act 503), the importation of used LPG cylinders is hereby prohibited.
The Director in charge of Testing Division of the GSB, Mr Kwabena Acheampong, told the Daily Graphic that, because LPG cylinders were always under pressure, they lost their capacity to contain much pressure after some time.
Therefore, he said, Europeans who were conscious of this development, discarded their cylinders after using them for some period for safety reasons.
However, Mr Acheampong said some unscrupulous Ghanaian importers bought and imported the used LPG cylinders into the country through unapproved routes.
The importers, thereafter, paint the cylinders to deceive customers into believing that they were either new or slightly used.
He said such cylinders could not contain much pressure and consequently “blast, catching fire, burning houses and destroying lives and property”.
To address the situation, Mr Acheampong said the GSB had intensified “destination inspection” at the entry ports to impound those cylinders, and indicated that Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) officers were collaborating with the Board to arrest such importers at the entry points.
Besides, he said, the Board’s surveillance team was engaging in market surveillance to identify and impound the cylinders, although he noted that identifying the used ones was difficult because the importers refurbished them as soon as they brought them into the country.
Mr Acheampong warned public officials who connived with business men to import used LPG cylinders into the country to desist from the act or face the law when arrested.
He also urged the public to refrain from patronising used LPG cylinders to ensure their safety, adding that “the GSB cannot guarantee the safety of the used LPG cylinders”.
Rather, he said, they should patronise locally made cylinders which were of high quality and safety.
Mr Acheampong asked the people to report anybody found trading in used cylinders “for the law to take its course” against them.