Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
BIG PLANS are being developed to deal with chemical safety and waste management locally.
"The Chemistry Department is developing a hazardous material inventory," said Professor Ishenkumba Kahwa, head of the Chemistry Department at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
Made possible through a $5 million grant from the Environ-mental Foundation of Jamaica, the "inventory will track the names of compounds, where they are imported from and why they were imported. We will be able to calculate the quantity of hazardous materials coming in and track them over time recording the dangers, antidotes and management of it, in order to encourage organisations and industries to use and dispose of material properly," Professor Kahwa said.
According to Princess Fletcher-Watson of the Ministry of Labour in Kingston, work being done at UWI is part of a larger project to manage chemicals and waste locally.
Ms. Fletcher-Watson, an industrial safety inspector, said officials from several agencies are now working on developing
systems to keep track of these materials, courtesy of US$60,000 in funding from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
The project started last year with meetings which examined the local situation with chemicals and waste management and which devised priority areas, proposed solutions and established a task force.
CHEMICAL SAFETY WEBSITE
Under this larger project, officials in various sectors such as the Health Ministry, Ministry of Labour, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the Pesticides Control Authority (PCA), UWI's Chemistry Depart-ment and the Jamaica Customs Department have been asked to develop action plans for five priority areas. These areas are reviewing regulations and the legislative framework, looking for gaps and solutions import and export controls of chemicals and waste; ensuring an integrated chemical safety in any emergency response; waste disposal mechanism and risk management procedures. Organisations were also asked to implement an inter-agency co-ordinating mechanism.
The Ministry of Labour has been asked to develop a chemical safety website.
"We are now reviewing proposals from persons to develop the website. The website should be a portal available to NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and Government (and) should show how chemicals are managed in Jamaica. Persons will also have access to chemical data sources and will be able to see various stakeholders and know the roles they play in the management," Ms. Fletcher-Watson said.
