EMA takes on industrial pollution

THE ENVIRONMENTAL Ma-nagement Authority (EMA) is at an advanced stage of drafting Air Pollution Rules to regulate emissions from local industries, including dioxins and furans. This was revealed yesterday by Corporate Communications Specialist in the Ministry of Public Utilities and the Environment, Peter Campbell, at the formal opening of the UNEP - Chemicals Sub-Regional Workshop of National Inventory of Dioxin and Furan Releases, at the Cascadia Hotel. Campbell delivered the feature address on behalf of Public Utilities Minister Rennie Dumas, who was attending a Finance and General Purpose Committee Meeting.

Dioxins and furans are continually adding chemicals into the global environment, which never stop accumulating because they’re non-degradable, Campbell explained. He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had upgraded dioxin from a “probable” to a “known  human carcinogen” in February 1997. “It’s a deadly legacy to leave to future generations,” he said.Within the Latin American and Caribbean there are three Basel Convention Regional Centres for Training and Technology Transfer, including the locally based Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI). The role and function of this Regional Centre include gathering, assessing and disseminating data and information in the field of hazards, in addition to collecting information on new or proven environmentally sound management.

Campbell commended CARIRI for their part in this thrust towards development and said sessions such as the workshop contributed to the information and insights available to policy makers and managers in the public and private sectors. Participants at the four-day workshop are from Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Belize; Dominica; Grenada; Jamaica; St Kitts/Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Suriname; the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.