The National Petroleum Au­thority (NPA), in collabo­ration with the Oil Sustain­ability Programme (OSP) under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy and Digicraft Advertising, has launched a week-long Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) awareness and sensitisation campaign in the Volta Region.

This initiative aims to educate the public on the health and envi­ronmental benefits of using LPG for cooking, targeting key stake­holders such as community leaders, market queens, municipal and district chief executives (MCEs and DCEs), and consumers through market engagements, town hall meetings, and community durbars.

At a community durbar in Kpando, Reverend Father, Selom Mireku, Chairman of the Local Council of Churches and Priest at Saint Patrick's Anglican Church, urged Ghanaians to advocate for cleaner cooking alternatives, highlighting the severe health risks posed by the continued use of firewood and charcoal in homes, stressing that switching to LPG was not just a convenience but a necessity to safeguard lives.

Quoting alarming statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Reverend Mireku noted that smoke from firewood and charcoal was responsible for over four million deaths globally each year. "Despite these dangers, many households in developing coun­tries, including Ghana, still rely on these traditional fuels," he said, adding that women and children, who spent most of their time in kitchens, were particularly vul­nerable to the harmful pollutants released by firewood smoke. "These pollutants are linked to deadly health conditions such as respiratory diseases, heart prob­lems, eye damage, and even pre­mature death," he stressed, adding that indoor air pollution caused by traditional cooking methods has become a leading cause of preventable illness in low-income households. "The health effects are staggering," Reverend Mireku remarked. "But for many, the shift to safer energy sources remains a challenge due to a lack of educa­tion." He commended the NPA and its collaborators for their efforts in promoting LPG as a cleaner and more environmentally sustainable option.