Environmental group Ecowaste Coalition on Friday called for regulations to reduce and prevent cadmium pollution. Cadmium is found in abundance in plastic tarpaulin used as campaign materials.
The group earlier warned that thousands of people working for politicians are in danger of being exposed to toxic levels of cancer-causing cadmium.
In a letter sent to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the coalition requested Secretary Ramon Paje through the Environmental Management Bureau to initiate the crafting of a Chemical Control Order for Cadmium and Cadmium Compounds, which belong to the Philippine Priority Chemicals List.
“We make this proposition in response to the dangerously high concentrations of cadmium detected in some items through the chemicals screening it conducted using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence [XRF]device,” said Ecowaste president Sonia Mendoza.
The group cited the results of its chemicals screening on plastic tarpaulins, fashion accessories and jewelry, coffee mugs and toys to justify its proposal.
For example, all of the 300 pieces of 2016 election campaign tarpaulins seized by the Metro Manila Development Authority and donated to Ecowaste for recycling purposes were found to be laden with cadmium ranging from 697 to 1,921 parts per million.
Another example: eight types of bracelets obtained by the group in 2015 from fashion jewelry vendors in Divisoria and Quiapo were found positive for cadmium in the range of 15 percent (or 150,000 ppm) to 32 percent (or 320,000 ppm). In 2013, the group found cadmium up to 165,300 ppm in 26 out of 50 samples of cheap fashion accessories and jewelry.
Ecowaste noted that the levels of cadmium found in the jewelry and tarpaulin samples cited above were way above the European Commission Regulation No. 494/2011 cadmium limit of 0.01 percent (or 100 ppm) for jewelry, plastics and brazing sticks.
“Cadmium exerts toxic effects on the kidney, the skeletal and the respiratory systems, and is classified as a human carcinogen,” according to the World Health Organization, which has listed cadmium among the “10 chemicals of major public health concern.”
“As a chemical safety and zero waste advocacy group, we are deeply concerned with the environmental pollution from cadmium, particularly in relation to the unregulated disposal of cadmium-containing waste materials in disposal sites,” Mendoza said.
According to United Nations Environment Programme Final Review of Scientific Information on Cadmium, products containing cadmium are not typically collected separately from the general waste stream in developing countries.
“Therefore cadmium discards will end up in municipal waste and disposed of in landfills, incineration, open burning or indiscriminate dumping. Some of the cadmium in these products will be released to the environment, the extent of which depends on disposal method, control technologies applied and other factors.”