PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS UP FOR DISCUSSION IN EDUCATORS ASSEMBLY IN LAOAG CITY

 

            Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), also known as the “Dirty Dozen,” is the central theme in this year’s assembly of senior officials and educators of the country’s leading colleges and universities on September 17-19,2003 at the Fort Ilocandia Hotel in Laoag City.

 

            Environmental and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun said the 8th National Senior Educators’ Assembly has chosen for its theme, “Persistent Organic Pollutants: The Challenges to the Academe” to highlight the need not only to raise the educators’ awareness on the adverse impacts of POPs on public health and the environment, but also to elicit their commitment in communicating POPs to their respective campuses.

 

            Gozun stressed that the colleges and universities, being the center of learning, can be a potent channel for disseminating environmental issues and concerns particularly those that would affect public health such as the POPs.

 

            According to the DENR chief, the Philippines was one of the 91 signatories to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in Sweden on May 23, 2001. She said, “Countries that have signed the Stockholm Convention are required to stop the production and use of POPs, except DDT which the Convention has allowed limited agreed use for public health vector control.”

 

            Meanwhile, Environmental Management Director Julian Amador identified the 12 persistent organic pollutants as pesticides hexachlorobenzene, mirex, chlordane, DDT, endrin, toxaphene, heptachlor, and dieldrin; industrial chemical polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and dioxins and furans.

 

            According to Amador, dioxins and furans are not commercially produced but in are by-products resulting from the production of other chemicals. These are likewise created in emissions from the incineration of hospital waste, municipal waste, hazardous waste and car emissions.

 

            Amador explained that the reason why are called persistent organic pollutants is because they “persist or remain intact in the environment for long periods compared with other chemicals.” He also said the danger they pose to public health and the environment is even greater as POPs are known to bio-accumulate through the food web.

 

            Aside from POPs, the educators shall also discuss the final outline of the syllabus in science, engineering, and business management, for the mainstreaming of eco-industrial development concerns in tertiary and continuing education/training program.

 

            DENR Undersecretary Rolando Metin is expected to keynote the occasion, along with Laoag City Mayor Rodolfo Farinas.

 

            The educators’ assembly is jointly organized by the Philippine Association for Tertiary Level Education Institutions in Environmental Protection and Management (PATLEPAM), EMB-DENR, and Northwestern University, with partial assistance from the United Nations Development Programme.