PH gov’t urged to support adoption of global policy vs chemical hazards

MANILA, Philippines — Pro-environmental organization EcoWaste Coalition has urged the national government to support adopting a global policy to protect human health and nature from chemicals and waste.

In a statement, the group said that it reached out to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) – Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) on Wednesday, pushing for an intensified effort to enhance the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).

EcoWaste explained that SAICM is a global policy framework formed to minimize the adverse impacts of chemicals on human health and the environment by 2020.

“As the 2020 goal to minimize the adverse effects of chemicals and waste throughout their lifecycle on human health and the environment has yet to be attained, the new instrument is anticipated to be more ambitious and to catalyze a more proactive and timely action to achieve the said goal,” the group said in its letter addressed to DENR-EMB.

According to EcoWaste, the national government, along with other concerned sectors, should take the opportunity to push for strengthened SAICM at the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5), which will be held in Bonn, Germany, from September 25 to 29.

The group suggested five points of authority DENR-EMB should push related to the SAICM during the conference. These were:

• The new SAICM text should retain its comprehensive scope and should cover chemicals and waste consistent with the language of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 12.4, which states: “Achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle and significantly reduce their release to air, water, and soil to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.”
• It cannot be less ambitious than the existing one and should continue to recognize the precautionary principle, the right to know the principle; the polluter pays principle and other agreed principles as embodied in multilateral chemical and environmental agreements and other agreements like the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm, and Minamata Conventions, Montreal Protocol, and the ILO Convention No. 170 concerning safety in the use of chemicals at work.
• It should retain emerging policy issues and other issues of concern, including lead in paint, chemicals in products, hazardous substances within the lifecycle of electrical and electronic products, nanotechnology and manufactured nanomaterials, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and environmentally-persistent pharmaceutical pollutants, perfluorinated chemicals, and highly hazardous chemicals.
• It should stress that adequate, predictable, and sustainable financing is essential to achieve the full spectrum of strategic approach issues, objectives, targets, and sound management of chemicals and waste throughout their lifecycle.
• It should strengthen the involvement of various stakeholders and mainly “promote and support meaningful and active participation by all sectors of civil society, particularly women, workers, and indigenous communities in regulatory and other decision-making processes that relate to chemical safety.”

“A strong and funded SAICM should contribute to the implementation of measures to realize the people’s right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and the workers’ right to safe and healthy working conditions, as well as measures to meet the Convention of Biodiversity’s target to reduce by half both excess nutrients and the overall risk posed by pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals,” EcoWaste Coalition emphasized.

“It should also contribute to the implementation of the resolution adopted by the 76th World Health Assembly last May 2023 regarding the impact of chemicals, waste, and pollution on human health, which affirmed “the need to tackle pollution as a cornerstone of achieving global commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals,” the group added.

— Juan Miguel Talens, INQUIRER.net intern

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