“Philippines: First PCBs-free ASEAN nation!”
This is the message that resounded during the two seminars and forums held in Balanga, Bataan and attended by local government officials, representatives from the NGOs, the academe, and other agencies and organizations in Bataan on the 11th and 12th of the month in view of the steady progress of the government project to ecologically and safely deal with the country’s stockpiles of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) called polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, commonly found in electrical transformers and capacitors.
The seminars were graced by authorities from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Philippine National Oil Company – Alternative Fuels Corporation (PAFC), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and representatives from EcoWaste Coalition who teamed up to push forward a PCBs-free Philippines even years earlier than targeted in the Senate-ratified Stockholm Convention on POPs.
“This month saw a big leap in our accomplishment of the set milestones for the project in that we have finally started construction of the non-combustion facility to be employed in the safe, closed-system, and non-burn elimination of PCBs,” explained Retired Rear Admiral Alfredo Abueg, Jr., Park Manager of PAFC, the entity to manage the operation of the non-combustion facility for the project.
“The Chemical Control Order for PCBs which the DENR issued in March 2004 aimed at the ultimate phase out of the concerned chemicals by 2014,” said DENR-EMB Director, Atty. Juan Miguel T. Cuna. “We hope that everyone would cooperate, specifically the PCB possessors, who should be ensuring that their stockpiles get into the inventory list for proper management and control toward total destruction using our very own safe and ecological non-combustion facility,” he added.
The EcoWaste Coalition and other environmental health groups promote the environmentally-sound management of PCBs in a manner that will prevent the release of more toxic chemical compounds such as dioxins and furans.
"Our country's effort to expedite the elimination of PCB-contaminated equipment and wastes using a non-incineration technology is a huge boost to the global movement to rid the planet of POPs. This will
surely help in advancing human and ecological health amid growing concern over toxic chemicals in our bodies and the ecosystems," said Manny Calonzo of the EcoWaste Coalition and the Global Alliance for
Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).
UNIDO Representative Dr. Suresh Raj, who gave a warm opening message on the second seminar day, expressed gratitude to all the project partners for helping out in the demonstration of “the best available technology and best environmental practice for the destruction of PCB… [toward] the greening of industries… and pursuing sustainable industrial development.”
The Non-Com POPs Project, through the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNIDO is being coordinated by the DENR. PAFC, on the other hand, is the operating entity and thus in charge of the management of the non-combustion facility, which is being set up inside their Industrial Park in Mariveles, Bataan.
The EcoWaste Coalition, GAIA, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Health Care Without Harm, BAN Toxics, Mother Earth Foundation, together with many other chemical safety advocacy and people’s interest organizations and groups under the EcoWaste Coalition uphold the public interest and ensure the public’s participation in the project processes.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Ecological approach to toxic protection
By Manny Calonzo
Environment & You
Journal Online
November 25, 2009, Wednesday
A broadly-supported initiative that seeks to eliminate the country’s stockpiles of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs is steadily being implemented to protect public health and the environment from toxic harm.
An advisory from the Department of Health warns that exposure to PCBs due to inhalation, skin absorption and the intake of PCB-contaminated food can disturb and damage the skin, liver and gastrointestinal tract as well as the nervous and immune systems.
PCBs belong to a group of chemical substances known as POPs or persistent organic pollutants that pose real threat to human health and the local and global ecosystems. The Stockholm Convention, of which the Philippines is a party now seeks the elimination of 21 POPs, including PCBs, as against the original “dirty dozen.”
By way of background, PCBs are light or dark yellow oily mixtures, typically used as insulating materials in transformers and capacitors and in heat transfer fluids and lubricants.
While the Philippines is not a PCB manufacturer, the country has considerable stocks of PCBs due to importation of electrical transformers through the years. According to preliminary government inventory, we have some 6,879 tonnes of PCB-contaminated equipment and wastes comprising about 2,400 tonnes of PCB oils.
We can find them in some electrical utilities and cooperatives, transformer servicing facilities, old industrial plants and commercial buildings, military camps and bases and hospitals.
In line with our country’s obligations under the POPs treaty, the government has developed a National Implementation Plan (NIP) with active support and participation from various stakeholders, including civil society.
One of the key goals of the NIP is to “achieve an effective and environmentally-sound strategy to manage the total elimination and destruction of PCB-containing products, equipment and wastes.”
Even before the NIP was completed in 2006, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had already issued in 2004 a Chemical Control Order for PCBs, which prohibits the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer or distribution of PCBs and sets 2014 as the deadline for the phase-out of the use or storage for reuse of all PCB oils and PCB-contaminated equipment, articles, packaging materials and wastes.
With the Environmental Management Bureau at the helm, the government has embarked on a truly innovative project that will help PCB owners and possessors comply with the NIP and the CCO in an ecological and socially responsible manner.
Dubbed as the “Non Com POPs Project,” the United Nations-assisted project will see the establishment of a proven and closed-loop non-combustion facility in Bataan that will eliminate the PCBs without causing the release of byproduct POPs and other toxic residues.
The facility will receive and process PCBs from domestic sources and abide by the incineration ban under the Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
The project has earned the support of Bishop Socrates Villegas (former head of the Diocese of Balanga), Sen. Jamby Madrigal who chairs the Senate environment committee and a host of political, community and civil society leaders.
If successfully carried out, the project will help the Philippines achieve its 2014 target and inspire developing countries in the safe and environmentally-sound management of their own stockpiles of PCBs.
While the project is underway, some 50 public health and environmental groups led by the EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and Greenpeace Southeast Asia have requested the DENR to complete the inventory and monitoring of the national stockpiles of PCBs to ensure that they are duly accounted for and safely stored.
Stringent monitoring of the stockpiled PCBs is deemed very important to prevent illegal recycling and disposal of PCBs that could only lead to toxic pollution and harm.
(Manny C. Calonzo is co-coordinator of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and president of the EcoWaste Coalition).
Link: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?issue=2009-11-25&sec=14&aid=107933
Environment & You
Journal Online
November 25, 2009, Wednesday
A broadly-supported initiative that seeks to eliminate the country’s stockpiles of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs is steadily being implemented to protect public health and the environment from toxic harm.
An advisory from the Department of Health warns that exposure to PCBs due to inhalation, skin absorption and the intake of PCB-contaminated food can disturb and damage the skin, liver and gastrointestinal tract as well as the nervous and immune systems.
PCBs belong to a group of chemical substances known as POPs or persistent organic pollutants that pose real threat to human health and the local and global ecosystems. The Stockholm Convention, of which the Philippines is a party now seeks the elimination of 21 POPs, including PCBs, as against the original “dirty dozen.”
By way of background, PCBs are light or dark yellow oily mixtures, typically used as insulating materials in transformers and capacitors and in heat transfer fluids and lubricants.
While the Philippines is not a PCB manufacturer, the country has considerable stocks of PCBs due to importation of electrical transformers through the years. According to preliminary government inventory, we have some 6,879 tonnes of PCB-contaminated equipment and wastes comprising about 2,400 tonnes of PCB oils.
We can find them in some electrical utilities and cooperatives, transformer servicing facilities, old industrial plants and commercial buildings, military camps and bases and hospitals.
In line with our country’s obligations under the POPs treaty, the government has developed a National Implementation Plan (NIP) with active support and participation from various stakeholders, including civil society.
One of the key goals of the NIP is to “achieve an effective and environmentally-sound strategy to manage the total elimination and destruction of PCB-containing products, equipment and wastes.”
Even before the NIP was completed in 2006, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had already issued in 2004 a Chemical Control Order for PCBs, which prohibits the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer or distribution of PCBs and sets 2014 as the deadline for the phase-out of the use or storage for reuse of all PCB oils and PCB-contaminated equipment, articles, packaging materials and wastes.
With the Environmental Management Bureau at the helm, the government has embarked on a truly innovative project that will help PCB owners and possessors comply with the NIP and the CCO in an ecological and socially responsible manner.
Dubbed as the “Non Com POPs Project,” the United Nations-assisted project will see the establishment of a proven and closed-loop non-combustion facility in Bataan that will eliminate the PCBs without causing the release of byproduct POPs and other toxic residues.
The facility will receive and process PCBs from domestic sources and abide by the incineration ban under the Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
The project has earned the support of Bishop Socrates Villegas (former head of the Diocese of Balanga), Sen. Jamby Madrigal who chairs the Senate environment committee and a host of political, community and civil society leaders.
If successfully carried out, the project will help the Philippines achieve its 2014 target and inspire developing countries in the safe and environmentally-sound management of their own stockpiles of PCBs.
While the project is underway, some 50 public health and environmental groups led by the EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and Greenpeace Southeast Asia have requested the DENR to complete the inventory and monitoring of the national stockpiles of PCBs to ensure that they are duly accounted for and safely stored.
Stringent monitoring of the stockpiled PCBs is deemed very important to prevent illegal recycling and disposal of PCBs that could only lead to toxic pollution and harm.
(Manny C. Calonzo is co-coordinator of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and president of the EcoWaste Coalition).
Link: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?issue=2009-11-25&sec=14&aid=107933
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
PHOTO RELEASE
ALERTOXIC: To avert potential chemical accidents and disasters, environmental health and safety advocates, led by green superhero called the PCB Eliminator, launch the “Toxic Awareness and Alertness Day” in Payatas junk shops to caution informal recyclers on the grave hazards of recycling electrical transformers and capacitors containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
PRESS RELEASE
EcoWaste Coalition Launches “Alertoxic Day” for Disaster Preparedness and Prevention
(Green group warns against chemical pollution from recycling toxic PCBs)
13 October 2009, Quezon City. As Filipinos come to terms with the disaster wrought by tropical storms Ondoy and Pepeng, an environmental coalition has put forward the need for increased mass awareness on toxic chemicals as a key strategy for preventing and mitigating accidents and disasters.
The EcoWaste Coalition today launched the “Toxic Awareness and Alertness Day,” or “Alertoxic Day” for short, as a monthly initiative that intends to raise public awareness and precaution on priority “chemicals of concern” to avert chemical contamination and disaster.
The term “chemicals of concern” refers to chemical substances that present a known or suspected danger to human and ecological health, and have been targeted for global action due to their hazards such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.
“With the monthly ‘Alertoxic Day,’ we hope to inform the public about the health and environmental consequences of being exposed to these top chemicals of concern and how to avoid and reduce injurious exposures. By sharing information and knowledge, we hope to ward off potential accidents and disasters involving highly toxic chemicals,” said Manny Calonzo, President, EcoWaste Coalition.
The group’s “Alertoxic Day” kicked off with an awareness and alertness campaign on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), specifically targeting the informal recycling sector such as junk shop proprietors and workers.
PCBs belong to the expanding list of highly toxic POPs, currently numbering at 21, that the international community, including the Philippines, has agreed to restrict and ultimately eliminate under the Stockholm Convention on POPs because they pose significant threats to
human health and the environment.
Donned in yellow shirts bearing “Working together for a PCBs-free Philippines”, EcoWaste Coalition activists led by their newest green superhero called the “PCB Eliminator” roamed around Barangay Payatas, one of the major recycling hubs in Metro Manila.
“Our team jumped from one junk shop to another, giving informational materials about PCBs and showing photos of what PCB equipment look like. We also used a loud speaker to inform community members of the hazards associated with recycling PCBs,” explained Rey Palacio, project staff of the EcoWaste Coalition.
“We chose to target junk shops amid reports of indiscriminate recycling of PCB-contaminated equipment such as electrical transformers and capacitors in some junk shops that could endanger the health of waste workers and contaminate their surroundings with
pollutants,” he added.
Other equipment where PCBs could be found are old fluorescent ballasts, liquid-filled circuit breakers, and voltage regulators, among others.
“We caution the recycling sector, particularly the junk shops and waste pickers, from handling PCB-containing equipment and waste oil as this can expose them to health-threatening and environmentally-harmful substances,” said Engr. Edwin Navaluna of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).
“We should also point out that recycling PCBs goes against the Chemical Control Order on PCBs, and erring parties can receive notice of violation,” Navaluna added.
The CCO for PCBs follows the Stockholm Convention, which requires wastes containing POPs to be handled, collected, transported and stored in an environmentally-sound manner. The Convention, which the Senate ratified in 2004, requires that the POPs content be destroyed, prohibiting recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct reuse or alternative uses of POPs.
According to the EcoWaste Coalition, junk shop workers and people in the vicinity could get exposed to PCBs through inhalation, skin contact with PCBs or contaminated materials, and by unknowingly consuming contaminated water or food products.
Health problems associated with exposure to PCBs include adverse reproductive, developmental and endocrine effects, liver problem and chloracne, with the latter two being the most common signs of exposure to PCBs. Three US studies even show that PCBs alter brain development and produce neurobehavioral problems in children. The chemicals are
also suspected to be cancer-causing.
To safely eliminate the country’s stockpiles of PCBs, the government in cooperation with the public and private sectors and the United Nations has embarked on a project that will set up a non-combustion facility to safely and ecologically deal with the toxic materials.
“It is only after undergoing approved decontamination procedures that the recyclable by-products, such as the metals from transformers and capacitors, could be safely handled and recycled. Otherwise, the non-treated materials are health and environmental hazards,” the
EcoWaste Coalition warned.
(Green group warns against chemical pollution from recycling toxic PCBs)
13 October 2009, Quezon City. As Filipinos come to terms with the disaster wrought by tropical storms Ondoy and Pepeng, an environmental coalition has put forward the need for increased mass awareness on toxic chemicals as a key strategy for preventing and mitigating accidents and disasters.
The EcoWaste Coalition today launched the “Toxic Awareness and Alertness Day,” or “Alertoxic Day” for short, as a monthly initiative that intends to raise public awareness and precaution on priority “chemicals of concern” to avert chemical contamination and disaster.
The term “chemicals of concern” refers to chemical substances that present a known or suspected danger to human and ecological health, and have been targeted for global action due to their hazards such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.
“With the monthly ‘Alertoxic Day,’ we hope to inform the public about the health and environmental consequences of being exposed to these top chemicals of concern and how to avoid and reduce injurious exposures. By sharing information and knowledge, we hope to ward off potential accidents and disasters involving highly toxic chemicals,” said Manny Calonzo, President, EcoWaste Coalition.
The group’s “Alertoxic Day” kicked off with an awareness and alertness campaign on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), specifically targeting the informal recycling sector such as junk shop proprietors and workers.
PCBs belong to the expanding list of highly toxic POPs, currently numbering at 21, that the international community, including the Philippines, has agreed to restrict and ultimately eliminate under the Stockholm Convention on POPs because they pose significant threats to
human health and the environment.
Donned in yellow shirts bearing “Working together for a PCBs-free Philippines”, EcoWaste Coalition activists led by their newest green superhero called the “PCB Eliminator” roamed around Barangay Payatas, one of the major recycling hubs in Metro Manila.
“Our team jumped from one junk shop to another, giving informational materials about PCBs and showing photos of what PCB equipment look like. We also used a loud speaker to inform community members of the hazards associated with recycling PCBs,” explained Rey Palacio, project staff of the EcoWaste Coalition.
“We chose to target junk shops amid reports of indiscriminate recycling of PCB-contaminated equipment such as electrical transformers and capacitors in some junk shops that could endanger the health of waste workers and contaminate their surroundings with
pollutants,” he added.
Other equipment where PCBs could be found are old fluorescent ballasts, liquid-filled circuit breakers, and voltage regulators, among others.
“We caution the recycling sector, particularly the junk shops and waste pickers, from handling PCB-containing equipment and waste oil as this can expose them to health-threatening and environmentally-harmful substances,” said Engr. Edwin Navaluna of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).
“We should also point out that recycling PCBs goes against the Chemical Control Order on PCBs, and erring parties can receive notice of violation,” Navaluna added.
The CCO for PCBs follows the Stockholm Convention, which requires wastes containing POPs to be handled, collected, transported and stored in an environmentally-sound manner. The Convention, which the Senate ratified in 2004, requires that the POPs content be destroyed, prohibiting recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct reuse or alternative uses of POPs.
According to the EcoWaste Coalition, junk shop workers and people in the vicinity could get exposed to PCBs through inhalation, skin contact with PCBs or contaminated materials, and by unknowingly consuming contaminated water or food products.
Health problems associated with exposure to PCBs include adverse reproductive, developmental and endocrine effects, liver problem and chloracne, with the latter two being the most common signs of exposure to PCBs. Three US studies even show that PCBs alter brain development and produce neurobehavioral problems in children. The chemicals are
also suspected to be cancer-causing.
To safely eliminate the country’s stockpiles of PCBs, the government in cooperation with the public and private sectors and the United Nations has embarked on a project that will set up a non-combustion facility to safely and ecologically deal with the toxic materials.
“It is only after undergoing approved decontamination procedures that the recyclable by-products, such as the metals from transformers and capacitors, could be safely handled and recycled. Otherwise, the non-treated materials are health and environmental hazards,” the
EcoWaste Coalition warned.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
PHOTO RELEASE
PCB Eliminator, EcoWaste Coalition's newest green superhero, pushing for the safe, non-burn, ecological elimination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)in the country is role played by a Bataan fisher folk and hailed by locals in Mariveles as their declaration of support to the United Nations-backed Non-Com POPs Project of the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau, which aims to ecologically eliminate PCBs in the country. The project facility is to be established inside the industrial park of PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corporation in Mariveles, Bataan. Photo taken during the recently held forum on the project in the area.(Photo by Rey Palacio)
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Brgy Alion, Mariveles, Bataan goes for PCBs-free Philippines
Brgy. Alion officials together with NGOs and Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) representatives, hand in hand in "Working together for a PCBs-free Philippines". Photo taken during the Non-Com POPs seminar & forum for the barangay held on 1 August 2009. The seminar ended with everyone adopting the resolutions pertaining to the concerns of the community folks on the Non-Com POPs Project and other related concerns. Brgy. Alion is one of the barangays in the vicinity of PNOC-AFC's Industrial Park, where the Non-Com facility is to be put up.
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