The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Chamber of Commerce executive yesterday hailed efforts that have identified 1,900 Bahamian buildings which contain toxic chemicals due to be banned under an international treaty.

Debby Deal, who heads the chamber's energy and environment division, praised the co-ordinated action by several government agencies to track down chemicals that fall under the 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) that the Stockholm Convention's 181 country signatories are due to ban.

The Bahamas is one of those signatories, and Ms Deal told Tribune Business that fulfilling its commitments under the convention represented a "good opportunity" for this nation to strengthen protections for human health and the environment when it came to permitting, importing and managing toxic chemicals and other harmful substances.

She revealed that this had led into a wider discussion between the Chamber of Commerce and New Providence Ecology Park Ltd, the newly-appointed private manager for the New Providence landfill, over how the private sector could help develop mechanisms to keep hazardous waste out of the landfill's incoming waste streams.

Ms Deal said the chamber is now in the infancy of exploring this idea, something that was confirmed last night by its chief executive, Jeffrey Beckles, who added that the private sector representative was keen to "deepen" these initial thoughts into an actionable plan.

Public and private sector stakeholders were told how the Stockholm Convention will impact the importation of POP-related chemicals into The Bahamas at a meeting last week, which was hosted by the Bahamas Environment, Science & Technology (BEST) Commission and the National Chemicals Coordinating Committee (NCCC).

As a member signatory, The Bahamas has to identify all products and services that contain or use the 12 POPs to be banned, and the importers and service providers behind them. A draft National Implementation Plan, detailing how this nation will ban and/or phase out use of these chemicals, and how existing stocks will be managed, has already been drafted.

Praising the work done to-date by BEST and the NCCC, Ms Deal told Tribune Business: "Most of the leg work has been done in locating where they have some of these [chemicals] in stockpile or storage. Nineteen hundred buildings have some of these chemicals that are going to be banned in them

"There is a building at the landfill that Environmental Health has that has some chemicals in it. They've done their legwork; everything has been done for this. I think the next stage is to go to the public and make them aware of what they're trying to do. This is really a good step forward for us."

Ms Deal said the 12 POP chemicals targeted for banning are commonly used in pesticides and other pest control products, along with farming fertilizers. And other Tribune Business' sources suggest that Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), through its fuel and transmission line processes, may also create POP by-products.

"This is a good opportunity for us to ban these and use more modern products in the quest to control pests in homes and farms," Ms Deal told Tribune Business. "It's really good. We don't really realise where a lot of these chemicals are used. It's a matter of how we find an alternative."

She added, though, that the absence of a regulatory regime governing the management and handling of toxic chemicals was a long-standing Bahamian weakness that went back decades. The Environmental Health Act 1987 contains provisions for regulations that govern the manufacture and disposal of pollutants and hazardous chemicals, but this remains in draft form.

"When you go back to 1987, lacking is a nice word," she added. "We really have no regulations or regulatory mechanisms to restrict or prohibit any chemicals coming into this country. We have no way of testing for harmful and toxic waste and toxic chemicals. There's no management of any chemicals coming into the country; nothing that stops anyone bringing these chemicals in.

"If the law goes into play they will be banned from coming into the country, and will be like the plastic/styrofoam ban; stopped at the border. The chemicals that are here, we will have to get them secured and find a place they can actually be shipped to and treated, so they are no longer hazardous. We don't have the facilities here; not even a laboratory to test them.

"I've been a contractor for 37 years, and so many times I have got into a situation where, maybe not a chemical, but where you have something in the insulation, A/C system, and what do you do with these... CFLs. We have no means of collecting them," Ms Deal continued.

"This has been a concern of mine and the Chamber and my committee; this process of how we get toxic and hazardous materials out of mainstream waste."

Ms Deal disclosed that this had led to Monday's conversation with Tim Hodge, the New Providence landfill's manager, and her subsequent determination to "come up with a better solution" to this issue.

She added that one possible mechanism was a "cradle to grave" solution, where companies responsible for bringing in hazardous materials and chemicals, such as car batteries, tyres and bleach, also took responsibility for their disposal rather than sending them to the landfill.

This could be tracked using Business Licences or Customs' border enforcement mechanisms, and Ms Deal added: "Sometimes it's easier for the private sector to come up with things to do. Jeff and I are going to work on it over the next couple of weeks to come up with a proper plan of execution."

Mr Beckles, when contacted by Tribune Business, confirmed that the Chamber and landfill manager had "started a conversation" on the topic, but warned that education of both businesses and wider society would be key if a sustainable solution is to be developed.

"There isn't a plan afoot that's been fleshed out yet," he said. "I'm excited there was initial acceptance that this was something we can work on as a joint partnership, and as we enhance our environmental policies and conservation expertise all these things come into play as a country.

"We're looking to continue the conversation, deepening the discussion and coming up with a viable plan that's something we can sink our teeth into."

The 12 POPs targeted for banning by the Stockholm Convention are the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex and toxaphene.

The industrial chemicals on the list are hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and by-products including hexachlorobenzene; polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF), and PCBs.

The BEST Commission said there are around 100,000 chemicals being produced commercially around the world, with some 1,500 being added each year. It added: "The management of these chemicals is a challenge for most developed countries, and for countries like The Bahamas the challenge is even greater."