Sunday, October 15, 2006 DENR adopts anti-pollution program By Bong Garcia
THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has launched on Friday the national implementation plan (NIP) aimed to reduce and eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) which adversely affect millions of Filipinos.
DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes said the NIP serves as a good guide to reduce and eliminate POPs, a number of very dangerous pollutants release in farms, households and factories and which remain in the environment for ages.
“Under this plan, we intend to create a situation wherein the probability of detection is high, apprehension higher and prosecution assured,” Reyes said in a statement.
Reyes said eliminating POPs is one of the biggest challenges facing the DENR which requires workable solutions and concrete action.
“These pollutants are everywhere in the environment. Worse, they can persist in the environment for hundreds of years, resulting in a continuing cycle of health and environmental damage as they are transported by wind and water around the planet and make their way up the food chain,” he said.
With the launching of the NIP, the Philippines became one of the first countries worldwide to prepare a national implementation plan in compliance with the Stockholm Convention.
POPs are particles of highly toxic chemical substances. Most vulnerable to their effects are people exposed to them in agricultural and industrial areas.
It can also take their toll in domestic setting, like in the case of open burning of garbage.
The deadly forms of POPs are now known as “Dirty Dozen’’ of pesticides: hexachlorobenzene, mirex, chlordane, DDT, endrin, toxaphene, heptachlor, aldrin and dieldrin; industrial chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCBs) and unintentional by-products like dioxins and furans.
All these deadly pollutants “bio-accumulate’’ in the body chain and in body tissues. They cause a host of environmental and human health maladies, including cancers, hormone disruption, immune system suppression, reduced fertility, developmental impairment, neuro-developmental, and learning problems.
“The unborn child, women, infants and children appear to be specially vulnerable to certain effects of POPs,” said Director Yolanda Oliveros of the Department of Health.
“The DOH used the POPs NIP as a comprehensive strategic policy document which aims to develop and improve the optimal and most effective POPs management system through the implementation of sustainable policy while securing human health and the environment,” she added.
A study released last week by the World Health Organization said air pollution alone prematurely kills two million people a year, with more than half of the deaths occurring in developing countries.
Among the measures to be undertaken in the nationwide plan to reduce or eliminate POPs are: outline the national objectives for the reduction and elimination of POPs production, importation, use, and releases; design programs to remove barriers to the NIP implementation; plan programs for information exchange, public education, communication, and awareness raising; enhance capacity through capability building; identify possible areas of exemption and prepare a report to justify it to the Convention; outline the needs for transfer of technology and know-hows and/or enhanced use and development of indigenous knowledge and alternatives and the estimated costs of needed investments.
Reyes said Philippines is one of 132 governments committed to abide by and implement the Stockholm Convention, an international treaty outlining international action to protect human health and the environment from POPs.
The Stockholm Convention was ratified by the Philippine Senate on February 17, 2004. Following its ratification, the country became a party to the Convention on February 27, 2004.
(October 15, 2006 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here. Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
