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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Friday, February 27, 2004 - Over one million dollars will be ploughed
into a project that will take St. Lucia closer to achieving a toxic free
environment. The project will be formally launched on March 18th, beginning with
a workshop that will include all stakeholders who can assist St. Lucia in
eliminating and limiting the use of hazardous chemicals. Some of these chemical
substances known as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are used in several
areas of daily activities, including agriculture and manufacturing. Data from
the industrialised world shows that these may be linked to a rise in certain
forms of cancer, birth defects and other disabilities.
The national co-ordinator of the project, Shirlene Simmons says the workshop
will target POPs, a major priority under the Stockholm Convention. “This is a
multi-stakeholder project. We’re looking at stockholders from government, non
governmental organisations, such as environmental NGOs; and the private sector
to be part of this process. There is also a public education component, which
will provide POPs-related information to farmers, manufacturers and various
sectors that work with chemicals.”
Ms. Simmons explained that the major output of the project, will be a National
Implementation Plan, under which various strategies will be developed to
establish the ground work for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention.
Persistent Organic pollutants are highly unstable compounds that can last for
years or decades before breaking down. It is said that every human being carries
traces of those chemical substances in their bodies. The Stockholm Convention
promises to address the challenges those chemicals pose to health and the
environment through governmental and country driven projects.
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