Ellalyn B. de Vera
Environment advocates recently expressed their support for the elimination of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) largely used in paints, plastics, and rubber products, which is the probable cause of human carcinogen.
Based on the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the United States Environment Protection Agency, PCB is a very toxic chemical compound that poses danger to people and the environment.
The Ban Toxics!, Ecological Waste (EcoWaste) Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, and the Health Care Without Harm said the United Nations-assisted project to eliminate the use of PCB will demonstrate the viability of destroying materials with PCB and wastes using a non-combustion technology.
The project is funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as the implementing agency, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Environmental Management Bureau (DEN-REMB) as the national executing agency, and the Philippine National Oil Co.-Philippine Alternative Fuel Corp. (PNOC-PAFC) as the operating entity.
The other key project partners are the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), National Power Corp. (Napocor), the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo), and non-government organizations.
Due to the toxic nature of PCB, the international community agreed to restrict and ultimately eliminate PCB under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in 2001.
The treaty which the Philippines signed in 2004 imposed a ban on the production of PCB and gave countries until 2025 to eliminate the use of PCB in certain equipment.
PCB is thin, light-colored liquid to yellow or black waxy solid used as heat exchange fluids in electric transformers or capacitors, and as plasticizers in paints, plastics, and rubber products, and as additives in dyes, pigments, sealants, and carbonless copy paper.
"This project, we hope, will spur public concern and participation in completing the country’s inventory of PCBs and in ensuring their safe containment and destruction or irreversible transformation in an environmentally sound manner, so that these exceedingly toxic compounds no longer pose threats to the health of Filipinos and our environment," they said in a statement.
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