• The EcoWaste Coalition found hazardous chemical from plastic election campaign tarpaulins
• The group has found substantial levels of cadmium, a cancer-causing substance, from the campaign materials
• The environmental group calls for the ban of cadmium use in all plastics to protect public health
The environmental group EcoWaste Coalition has warned the public on the health hazard posed by chemicals used in plastic campaign tarpaulins.
After conducting chemical screening, the group said it has found substantial levels of cadmium on 300 plastic campaign tarpaulins that were among the tons of election campaign posters and tarpaulins posted outside the common poster areas removed by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority or MMDA.
In the article she wrote for Sun Star dated February 22, 2016, Nini Cabaero wrote that all 300 tarpaulins tested by EcoWaste Coalition for hazardous additives were found to contain cadmium, a cancer-causing substance that is among the “10 chemicals of major public health concern” of the World Health Organization, way above the safe level.
The article said that according to Ecowaste coordinator Aileen Lucero, the level of cadmium found in the tarpaulins ranges from 697 to 1,921 parts per million (ppm). The European Union’s safe limit for cadmium in plastic products is 100 ppm.
The European Commission Regulation No. 494/2011 prohibits manufacturers from placing mixtures and articles produced from plastic material containing cadmium “equal to or greater than 0,01 percent by weight,” or 100 ppm.
To protect the public from health risks that the substance poses, Lucero said the Philippines should ban cadmium in plastics just like what developed economies did.
“While developed economies have adopted measures to ban cadmium in all plastics, the Philippines has yet to follow suit,” Lucero said.
“We need to ban the intentional use of cadmium-based pigments and stabilizers in all plastics, including tarps and packaging materials, to protect the public health and reduce the amount of cadmium that enters the waste streams, which, at the end of the day, will get dispersed into the environment,” she added.
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