The environment in the news

Increased smuggling

This is why combating the smuggling activities of ODS should draw more attention than the rather academic and scientific debate on the ozone layer.

Addressing an orientation workshop organized by the UNEP and the Center for Environment Education (CEE), India titled “ Media and the Ozone Layer Protection” in Bangkok recently, Rajendra Shende said that strengthening the dissemination of appropriate information during the compliance period was mandatory to deal with the smuggling of ODS which is defeating the purpose of the Protocol itself.

In order to curb the practice, countries like India has increased the prices of some products containing ODS. India has increased prices of HCFC- 22 containing products to create a deterrent effect. Other countries also have adopted their own methods to deal with the problem.

However, when local markets offer ODS containing products at a higher price while at the international market they are obtainable at a much lower price, the natural tendency is to indulge in smuggling.

Participants at the workshop agreed that the banning was introduced with the holistic intention of reducing the market. But the closure of legal channels have opened floodgates elsewhere, they felt. Instead of alternative chemicals, which are expected to be ozone, friendly, the world today experiences increased smuggling.

Risk profiling

“New ODS are invented by industries. It is therefore a continued process,” he adds.

Shende insists that along with the commitments, something must change- consumption patterns that auger well for the illegal trading and the increased demands for chemicals that deplete the ozone layer.

According to officials from the Thailand Ports Authority, there is an identified pattern of ODS smuggling. The most common smuggling methods are, false labeling, misdeclaration, goods being declared as recycled, double laying, concealment, fraudulent transshipment methods and being declared as equipment.

With growing ODS smuggling, the world is now working together again to track illegal trade through bilateral and multilateral initiatives.

Thailand Port officials said the only way forward is to introduce a good licensing system that would prevent the ODS smuggling.

New challenges

“The Protocol caused a revolution in the international chemical agenda when the banning of ODS took place. It opened a fresh debate on using chemicals that would not harm the ozone layer which is fundamentally important for human health and agriculture,” Shende adds.

According to him, some replacement chemicals could prove harmful though substantial work has already been done in this area to prevent such from taking place. Then again, he urges more practical action- such as dealing with the ODS containing equipment that are already in existence. “ Look beyond policy and combat smuggling with a good licensing and monitoring programme. There lies the success,” noted the Head, UNEP Ozone Action Branch.

BOX: Sri Lanka ODS status

The National Ozone Unit (NOU) has issued recommendations to import approximately 1900 refrigerators, 1700 air conditioners, 70 deep freezers and 80 other types of used cooling equipment which have ozone friendly refrigerants.

Sri Lanka has also woken up to the reality that while the island’s commitments are good with targets being met, smuggling needs to be combated to make things work.

Last year, an ODS-Task Force was created comprising officers from the Department of Customs, Import and Export Control Department, Registrar of Pesticides and the National Ozone Unit (NOU) in a bid to tackle illegal trading of ODS.

13 million deaths each year preventable - UN

Over 13 Million Deaths Each Year Due To Preventable Environmental Causes - Un Report

More than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes and the lives of as many as 4 million children alone, mostly in developing countries, could be saved by preventing such ecological risks, according to a new United Nations <"http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/preventingdisease/en/index.html">report released today, the most comprehensive yet on the issue.

“We have always known that the environment influences health very profoundly, but these estimates are the best to date,” Acting UN World Health Organization (<"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr32/en/index.html">WHO) Director-General Anders Nordstr๖m said in issuing the study, which shows that as much as 24 per cent of global disease, and 33 per cent of that in children under five, is caused by environmental exposures that can be averted.

The four main diseases influenced by poor environments are diarrhoea, lower respiratory infections, various forms of unintentional injuries, and malaria. Preventive measures include safe household water storage and better hygienic measures; cleaner and safer fuels; increased building safety, better management of toxic substances in the home and workplace; and better water resource management.

“This will help us to demonstrate that wise investment to create a supportive environment can be a successful strategy in improving health and achieving development that is sustainable,” Dr. Nordstr๖m said of the report - ‘Preventing disease through healthy environments - towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease.’

By focusing on the environmental causes of disease, and how various diseases are influenced by environmental factors, the analysis breaks new ground, reflecting how much death, illness and disability could be realistically avoided every year as a result of better environmental management.

Nearly one third of death and disease in the least developed regions is due to environmental causes. Over 40 per cent of malaria deaths and an estimated 94 per cent of those from diarrhoeal diseases, two of the world’s biggest childhood killers, could be prevented through better environmental management.

“For the first time, this new report shows how specific diseases and injuries are influenced by environmental risks and by how much,” the Director of WHO’s Department for Public Health and Environment, Maria Neira said.

“It also shows very clearly the gains that would accrue both to public health and to the general environment by a series of straightforward, coordinated investments. We call on ministries of health, environment and other partners to work together to ensure that these environmental and public health gains become a reality.”

The research, involving systematic review of literature as well as surveys of over 100 experts worldwide, identifies specific diseases affected by well-known environmental hazards - and by how much. “In effect, we now have a 'hit list' for problems we need to tackle most urgently in terms of health and the environment," Dr. Neira said.

Diseases with the largest number of deaths annually from such causes: 2.6 million from cardiovascular diseases; 1.7 million deaths from diarrhoeal illness; 1.5 million from lower respiratory infections; 1.4 million from cancers; 1.3 million from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; 470,000 from traffic crashes; and 400,000 from unintentional injuries.