Protect yourself from PCBs

What are PCBs?
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a type of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), which are now being phased out due to their characteristics which are as follows:
• They resist degradation and remain in the environment for a very long time.
• They accumulate in fatty tissues.
• They are toxic to both humans and wildlife.

Where can you find PCBs?
PCBs are commonly found in old electrical transformers and capacitors. They are also found in old fluorescent ballasts, liquid-filled circuit breakers and voltage regulators, and were used in other industrial applications, such as in hydraulics, as heat transfer fluids, in lubricants, adhesives, and as plasticizers among others.

How can you get exposed to PCBs?
• Skin contact
• Ingestion
• Inhalation of heated vapors

What are some of the effects of PCB-exposure to human health?
• Chloracne
• Elevation of liver enzymes
• Adverse reproductive, developmental and endocrine effects
• Suspected to cause cancer in humans

How do you protect yourself from PCB exposure?
• Don’t handle any material suspected to contain or to be contaminated with PCBs, such as transformers, capacitors, and used-oil.
• Stay away from known PCB-contaminated sites or areas where PCBs and/or suspected PCB-equipment or PCB-contaminated materials and/or used-oil are stored.
• Report to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) any illegal handling, use/reuse, and recycling of PCBs and/or PCB-contaminated materials and/or used-oil by junkshops and transformer repair, reconditioning, retro-filling, and used-oil facilities in your area .

What are the first-aid treatments for exposure to PCBs?

In Case of First Action Second Action

PCB on skin -Wash with soap and water -Seek immediate medical
for at least 15 minutes advice from physician
PCB in eyes -Flush eyes with gentle stream -Seek immediate medical
of clean water for 15 advice from physician
minutes keeping eyelids part
Swallowed or ingested PCB -Press down the back of the -Seek immediate medical
tongue to induce vomiting advice from physician
Strong PCB fumes -Provide victim with enough -Seek immediate medical
inhalation fresh air advice from physician

Source: Code of Practice on the Management of Polychlorinated biphenyls

Join the “Bantay PCBs” (PCBs Watch),
an NGO-initiated campaign to complement the government’s efforts in ensuring that all PCBs and PCB-contaminated wastes are safely managed and destroyed at the Non-Com POPs destruction facility located inside PNOC-AFC’s Industrial Park in Bataan.

For more information, please call the
EcoWaste Coalition at (02) 441-1846 or email us at info@ecowastecoalition.org.

For reports on violations, please call the
DENR-EMB Central Office at (02) 928-1212 or their Regional Office in your area.

Philippines: Destroying PCBs, Building a Healthy Future

 By Manny C. Calonzo
EcoWaste Coalition and Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (NGO partners of the UNIDO “Non-Combustion POPs Project”)
(Published in Success stories: Stockholm Convention 2001 – 2011. 2012. To download this publication, go to http://chm.pops.int/Convention/Media/Publications/tabid/506/Default.aspx)

The Philippines today stands at a historic juncture in its quest to protect the environment and the health of its people with the construction of a ground-breaking national treatment facility for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

While it has never manufactured PCBs, the Philippines has accumulated at least 6879 tons of PCB-containing equipment and wastes from past imports of electrical transformers, most of which are to be found in electric utility, industrial, manufacturing and commercial plants and facilities.

After years of scrupulous planning and action to get through a plethora of challenges, the first ever non-combustion facility for destroying PCBs, touted as the first of its type in a developing country in Asia and the Pacific, was built in the province of Bataan, to assist the industry, the government and the people in meeting national as well as global phase-out requirements for PCBs.

Nationally, the Chemical Control Order (CCO) for PCBs issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in 2004 bans the production, importation, sale, transfer, distribution and use of PCBs in open-ended, partially enclosed and totally enclosed applications. By 2014, or after a ten-year grace period, the use or storage for reuse of PCBs, including PCB-contaminated equipment, article, packaging and waste, will no longer be allowed.

Globally, the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which the Philippines ratified in 2004, also bans the production of PCBs, giving Parties until 2025 to phase out the use of PCB-containing equipment and until 2028 to treat and eliminate recovered PCBs (environmentally sound management).

To meet these national and global requirements on PCBs, the Philippines has embarked on a multi-stakeholder Non-Com POPs Project which began in 2008, and which has, from all indications, helped the country in dealing with limitations such as the inadequate inventories of PCBs, the absence of locally available technologies for effectively destroying POPs and the scarce financial resources for the huge costs involved in managing PCB stockpiles.

In close collaboration with private and public sector partners and with generous support from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau led and shepherded the project that saw the eventual establishment of a facility operated by the Philippine National Oil Company – Alternative Fuels Corporation (PAFC) in Mariveles, Bataan.

The Non-Com POPs Project aims to ensure the environmentally sound destruction of the country’s PCBs in the said facility through a closed-loop, non-incineration, sodium-based dechlorination technology.

The project integrates all essential components of a sustainable, ecological and socially-responsible approach to eliminating PCBs, such as: 1) the conduct of PCBs inventory and continuing data verification; 2) the maintenance, handling, and interim storage of PCB-containing equipment; 3) the transfer of technology, including the meticulous training of personnel; 4) public-private stakeholders’ participation; and 5) public information and outreach, particularly in host communities.

The project conforms with Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention that requires Parties to manage POPs wastes, including PCBs, in a manner protective of human health and the environment. Specifically, Article 6 directs Parties to handle, collect, transport and store such wastes in an environmentally sound manner, and to dispose such wastes in a way that the POP content is destroyed or irreversibly transformed.

The technology operates in a closed-loop system, with a total destruction efficiency approaching 100%, to prevent the uncontrolled release of by-product POPs and other environmental pollutants of concern. It is commercially available and is used in Japan for managing PCBs.

The project further takes pride in ensuring strong civil society participation in all stages of the project development and implementation, in line with Article 10 of the Stockholm Convention on “Public Information, Awareness and Education.”

For instance, from 2010 to 2011, public information activities were undertaken by participating non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other project partners to enlighten community members about the initiative, collect feedback and channel their concerns to the authorities for further action. Hundreds of local residents have participated in such activities.

Among the NGOs that have provided critical input and support for the project are the EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and Greenpeace Southeast Asia, along with Ban Toxics, Health Care Without Harm, Mother Earth Foundation and many other groups.

Plans are underway to strengthen the Multipartite Monitoring Team to ensure that legally-required environmental, health and social standards and requirements are duly complied by Non-Com POPs facility.

Also, to ensure sustained public awareness about PCBs and deter illegal disposal operations that can lead to the reuse and recycling of PCBs and PCB-contaminated equipment, environmental health groups led by the EcoWaste Coalition came together in March 2011 to launch the “Bantay PCBs” or PCB Watch: “The EcoWaste Coalition adopts and supports the establishment of Bantay PCBs to bring about the needed participation of various sectors toward attaining a united action to complement the government’s efforts for the safe and ecological management and destruction of PCBs,” the group said.

By working together, the Philippines hope to protect their people and the environment from PCBs. For more information about the Non-Com POPs Project:

Bantay PCBs team visits the Non-Com POPs Facility

Bantay PCBs team comprising of NGO representatives from the Cavite Green Coalition (CGC), Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), EcoWaste Coalition, and the Mindanao-based Interface Development Interventions (IDIS) visit the Non-Com POPs Facility in Bataan during a monitoring activity done by the team to assess the progress of the facility which at the time of the visit is already at the commissioning phase. (photo taken 16 August 2011)

PCB generators in Mindanao told to ecologically deal with their wastes

28 April 2011, Cagayan de Oro. In view of the Philippine project for the ecological elimination of the country’s stockpiles of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a multi-stakeholder team led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) told users and generators of PCBs in Mindanao to deal with their wastes ecologically.

In a seminar held this morning in Cagayan de Oro City, DENR-EMB and team told the more than 35 representatives of some 28 electric cooperatives and other generators of PCBs and PCB-contaminated equipment and wastes from Regions 9 to 13 to commit their stockpiles to the UN-assisted Non-Combustion destruction of POPs Project or simply the Non-Com POPs Project.

During the seminar, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Representative to the Philippines, Dr. Suresh Chandra Raj, challenged Mindanao to “be PCB-free and help push the country to attain this status very soon.”

According to DENR-EMB, the currently known PCB inventories as reported in the National Implementation Plan of the Stockholm Convention on POPs include 6,879 tons of PCB containing equipment and wastes.

“If all PCB stockpiles in Mindanao would be committed to the Project, a burdensome number would have been unloaded, providing us with a better view of the target PCB-free country,” says DENR-EMB’s Engr. Edwin Navaluna, Non-Com POPs Project Coordinator.

Chemical advocacy network EcoWaste Coalition also urged the seminar participants to “ensure the environmentally sound management of [their] PCBs as specified in the Chemical Control Order for PCBs by committing [their] PCB wastes to the Project.”

The DENR-issued CCO for PCBs strictly bans the unauthorized handling and improper management and disposal of these chemicals which can put the environment and people’s health at risk.

Adverse effects associated to PCB exposure include damage to the immune system, liver, skin, reproductive system, gastrointestinal tract and thyroid gland.

“Finally, we have a safe, non-burn process to ecologically deal with our country’s stockpiles of PCBs in compliance with our obligations under the Stockholm Convention and the CCO for PCBs,” Navaluna added.

The non-combustion technology, which shall be employed in the destruction of PCBs, destroys the chemicals through a sodium-based dechlorination process. It meets two specific criteria:

Firstly, the technology would operate in a system that is essentially closed. This is to ensure that uncontrolled releases of POPs and other substances of concern are avoided.

Secondly, the technology can achieve total destruction efficiencies (DEs) for POPs and other substances of concern that approach 100 percent. This conforms with the Stockholm Convention in terms of reducing “total releases” to all media with the goal of “their continuing minimization and where feasible ultimate elimination.”

The DENR is the lead government agency in charge of the Non-Com POPs Project, which is supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corporation is the operating entity for the Non-Com POPs Facility, which is housed inside their industrial park in Mariveles, Bataan.

The EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Ban Toxics, Health Care Without Harm, and Mother Earth Foundation are among the public interest non-government organizations participating in support of the project. ###

RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BANTAY PCBS

WHEREAS, PCBs, being a type of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and are commonly used in the past as dielectric fluid for electrical transformers and capacitors, and are also used in old fluorescent ballasts, liquid-filled circuit breakers, voltage regulators, and other industrial applications, and which may have even found its way into used-oil recycling in the country; are now being phased out in the country due to their characteristics which are as follows:
• They are toxic to humans and wildlife
• They resist degradation and remain in the environment for a very long time.
• They enter the food chain and accumulate in fatty tissues of animals and humans;

WHEREAS, studies have shown that PCBs can lead to adverse reproductive, developmental and endocrine effects, and that they are suspected to be cancer-causing in humans;

WHEREAS, the Philippines is undertaking a project called the Non-Com POPs Project, a United Nations-assisted undertaking to safely and ecologically eliminate the country’s stockpiles of PCBs and PCB-contaminated wastes and materials at the Non-Com POPs Facility in Mariveles, Bataan through non-combustion process;

WHEREAS, united action among all concerned stakeholders (i.e. government, private entities, civil society organizations, and individuals) is necessary to bring about a more effective monitoring of PCBs and PCB-contaminated materials and used-oil toward their safe management and non-burn destruction at the Non-Com POPs Facility;

WHEREAS, during the 9th General Assembly of the EcoWaste Coalition, it has been resolved on 28 January 2009 that the Coalition shall “support the effective participation of civil society in the [Non-Com POPs Project]... to eliminate the [country’s] stockpiles of PCBs and PCBs-contaminated equipment [through non-combustion process]”.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the EcoWaste Coalition adopt and support the establishment of Bantay PCBs, to bring about the needed participation of various sectors toward attaining a united action to complement the government’s efforts for the safe and ecological management and destruction of PCBs and PCB contaminated wastes, used-oil, and materials in the Philippines; and to further encourage other sectors to adopt and support the Bantay PCBs action points, namely,

1. Organize awareness raising activities about PCBs and the Non-Com POPs Project;

2. Report illegal handling, use/reuse, and recycling of PCBs and/or PCB-contaminated materials and used oil to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB);

3. Alert illegal PCB handlers that handling, recycling, reusing, or storing PCBs and PCB-contaminated materials and/or used oil are dangerous and are against the law.

4. Inform others about PCBs and the Non-Com POPs Project.

5. Enjoin the local government units to:

a. Pass ordinances toward the environmentally-sound management of all PCBs and PCB-contaminated materials in your locality, and in support of the Non-Com POPs Project.

b. Conduct regular monitoring of junkshops and other informal recyclers; transformer repair, reconditioning and retro-filling facilities; facilities dealing with used oil; and other suspected handlers of PCBs and PCB-contaminated materials and/or used oil to ensure that they comply with the law.

c. Ensure that all used oil from facilities dealing with used oil are PCB-free.

d. Require PCB-generators in your area to commit their PCB wastes to the Non-Com POPs Project for safe destruction.

6. Enjoin PCB-users/generators to:

a. Contact PNOC-AFC, the operator of the Non-Com POPs destruction facility, to avail of their services.

b. Ensure environmentally-sound management of their PCBs and PCB-contaminated materials as specified in the Code of Practice on the Management of PCBs and in the CCO for PCBs.

RESOLUTION DECLARED AND ADOPTED during the EcoWaste Coalition 11th General Assembly, 19 March 2011, in Quezon City.

"Bantay PCBs" launched

Environmentalists led by “PCB Eliminator” launch a campaign dubbed as "Bantay PCBs" to promote the environmentally-sound management of toxic oily liquids known as polycholorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that are commonly found in old electric transformers. (Photo taken 19 March 2011, during EcoWaste Coalition's 11th General Assembly)

Environmentalists Vow to Monitor Illegal Recycling and Disposal of PCBs

In a bid to ensure safe management of obsolete electric transformers’ oils known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), more than 50 civil society groups today launch a national campaign to ensure that none of the toxic materials will be disposed of illegally and jeopardize public health and safety.

Hailed as “Bantay PCBs,” the campaign aims to raise public awareness on PCBs, monitor any illegal handling of PCBs for reuse, recycling or disposal, and promote the environmentally-sound management of PCBs.

“PCBs are toxic to humans and wildlife. This will explain the resolute efforts, locally and globally, to prevent their damaging dispersal into the environment,” said Roy Alvarez, President, EcoWaste Coalition

“Through ‘Bantay PCBs,’ we intend to nip in the bud the threat of PCB-containing oil, equipment and waste being handled recklessly to the detriment of public health and the environment,” he added.

Information from the UN-backed PCBs Elimination Network (PEN), of which the EcoWaste Coalition and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives are members, says that PCBs are a class of synthetic organic chemicals used for a variety of industrial uses, mainly as dielectric fluids in capacitors and transformers.

Adverse effects associated to the exposure to PCBs, according to PEN, include damage to the immune system, liver, skin, reproductive system, gastrointestinal tract and thyroid gland.

The unauthorized handling of PCBs, which can put the workers’ health at risk, is explicity banned under the Chemical Control Order for PCBs issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

To support entities in complying with the required elimination of their PCB stockpiles in a safe manner, the DENR in partnership with the private and public sectors is implementing a Non-Combustion POPs Project for PCBs (or the Non-Com POPs Project).

The project will see the operation of a non-incineration plant, in keeping with the incineration ban under the Clean Air Act, for destroying domestic stocks of PCBs, which are commonly found in power plants and industrial facilities.

The Non-Com POPs Project is managed by the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau with support from the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The facility, which is currently undergoing construction in Mariveles, Bataan, will be operated by the PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp.

Also participating in the Non-Com POPs Project are environmental health and justice groups such as the EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Ban Toxics, Health Care Without Harm, and Mother Earth Foundation.

-end-

Reference:

PCBs Elimination Network (PEN):

http://chm.pops.int/Programmes/PCBs/PCBs%20Elimination%20Network%20(PEN)/tabid/438/language/en-US/Default.aspx