Global Common Statement on Chemicals Management

NGO/CSO Global Common Statement on
The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management

Recognizing that “fundamental changes are needed in the way that societies manage chemicals,” Environment Ministers, Health Ministers and other delegates from over 100 governments together with representatives of civil society and the private sector declared in Dubai, February 6, 2006, that “the environment worldwide continues to suffer from air, water and land contamination, impairing the health and welfare of millions.” They adopted the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), a global plan of action whose stated goal is: “to achieve the sound management of chemicals throughout their life﷓cycle so that, by 2020, chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment.”

The SAICM addresses both agricultural and industrial chemicals; covers all stages of the chemical life﷓cycle of manufacture, use and disposal; and includes chemicals in products and in wastes.

We, (Name of organization) , a civil society organization, join in this global effort to work for a future where exposure to toxic chemicals is no longer a source of harm.

We agree with the SAICM:
· On the need to take action to “prevent the adverse effects of chemicals on the health of children, pregnant women, fertile populations, the elderly, the poor, workers and other vulnerable groups and susceptible environments.”
· On the need to “apply the precautionary approach” and “give priority consideration to the application of preventive measures such as pollution prevention.”
· On the need to address the “lack of capacity for managing chemicals in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, dependency on pesticides in agriculture, exposure of workers to harmful chemicals and concern about the long-term effects of chemicals on both human health and the environment.”
· With the commitment to “promote and support the development and implementation of, and further innovation in, environmentally sound and safer alternatives, including cleaner production, informed substitution of chemicals of particular concern and non﷓chemical alternatives.”
· On the need to promote “adequate transfer of cleaner and safer technology” and with a call to make available both “existing and new sources of financial support.”
· On the need to promote “capacity﷓building, education and training and information exchange on sound management of chemicals for all stakeholders.”
· That “the sound management of chemicals is essential if we are to achieve sustainable development, including the eradication of poverty and disease, the improvement of human health and the environment and the elevation and maintenance of the standard of living in countries at all levels of development.”
· With the commitment to “promote and support meaningful and active participation by all sectors of civil society, particularly women, workers and indigenous communities, in regulatory and other decision-making processes that relate to chemical safety.”
· With the commitment to facilitate access to “information and knowledge on chemicals throughout their life cycle, including the risks that they pose to human health and the environment.”

We commit ourselves and call upon all stakeholders including governments, non governmental organizations, the private sector, intergovernmental organizations and others to work together to implement SAICM policies, and to reform domestic chemicals assessment and management laws, policies and practices to achieve the 2020 goal in all countries.

-end-

The NGO/CSO Global Common Statement on SAICM was developed by representatives of six NGO networks at a Planning Meeting held in Toronto, Canada, January 23-25, 2008 to launch a Global SAICM Outreach Campaign. These networks were: Health Care Without Harm (HCWH); the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN); International Society of Doctors for the Environment, (ISDE); Pesticides Action Network International (PAN); Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF); and the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA). It was agreed at the meeting that this statement would be presented for consideration and adoption to NGOs and CSOs in all regions of the world as part of a global campaign to secure more than one thousand NGO endorsements of this statement in at least 80 countries covering all regions of the world.

The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) comprises three core texts: The Dubai Declaration, which expresses the commitment to SAICM by Ministers, heads of delegation and representatives of civil society and the private sector; The Overarching Policy Strategy, which sets out the scope of SAICM, the needs it addresses and objectives; and A Global Plan of Action, which sets out proposed work areas and activities for implementation of the Strategic Approach. These texts can be found in all UN languages at: http://www.chem.unep.ch/saicm/SAICM%20texts/SAICM%20documents.htm
SAICM Dubai Declaration paragraph 7
SAICM Dubai Declaration paragraph 5
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 13
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 7 (c)
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 14 (e)
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 14 (f)
SAICM Dubai Declaration paragraph 6
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 14 (j)
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 10 (b)
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 19
SAICM Global Plan of Action, Executive Summary, paragraph 8 (i)
SAICM Dubai Declaration paragraph 1
SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy paragraph 16 (g)
SAICM Dubai Declaration paragraph 21

Read more...

"Dubious Carbon Credit projects in Delhi"

Round Table on “Incinerator based carbon credit projects” on 30th April, 2008 at 2. 00 in Indian Social Institute.

The immediate reason for the Round Table is that project activity in terms of constructions in Timarpur, Sukhdev Vihar and Ghazipur projects claiming carbon credits has formally started. The Project Design Documents to that effect have been submitted to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board. The RDF Incinerator technology proposed for these projects has been deemed obsolete and highly polluting. It is fraught with disastrous consequences for public health.

Having stopped such incineration-based waste to energy plants in the past with collective efforts, there is a need to revive a Delhi Campaign for Safe Environment to persuade decision makers to give up such projects in public interest.

We also wish to intervene in constructive and creative manner to stop combustion technologies along with the residents of the colonies where there are proposed. The way newspapers in particular have reported on polluting technologies leaves a lot to be desired.

This initiative is part of `Hurrafi 10' to bring together few discerning journalists with some key resource persons around a Round Table to share the current goings in Delhi in the name of waste management and carbon trade with the aim of initiating sustained engagement on this issue of consequence.

Date: 30 April, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM
Venue: Conference Room No.412, Indian Social Institute, Near Sai Baba Mandir
(adjacent to Lodi Road), New Delhi

Justice Rajinder Sachhar, former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court has evinced interest in the issue and he is likely to join the Round Table.

For details: Mb: 9818089660 , E-mail:krishnagreen@gmail.com

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what
happens--Anon

Read more...

Climate Shock: Businessworld

India must act before climate change becomes a national security threat

Imagine that rising temperatures and erratic rainfall have destroyed 20 per cent of India’s food stock. Cities and towns along India’s 7,000-km-long coast are flooded by the sea. Malaria, cholera and dengue have become more virulent and widespread than ever before. Riots rage on across India because people lack access to basic resources, like food and water. And Bangladesh, China and Pakistan all threaten a war over access to shared rivers.

Admittedly, this is India’s worst-case scenario with respect to climate change. But it is precisely for this reason that last April, Margaret Beckett, then Britain’s foreign secretary, initiated a first-ever debate in the United Nations Security Council on the links between climate change and security. “What makes wars start?” Beckett asked rhetorically at the debate in which 50 countries participated. “Fights over water; fights over food production, land use….”

Ironically, when it was India’s turn to speak, permanent representative Nirupam Sen sided with the group of 77 nations, then led by Pakistan. He refuted Beckett’s argument with a reference to UN rules. “To make an uncertain long-term prospect a security threat amounts to an informal amendment of the Charter,” Sen argued. He added that climate change should only be seen as a sustainable development problem.

Shifting Paradigms
Beckett, however, is not alone. One day before the landmark UNSC debate, a group of retired American generals and admirals released a report on the security implications of climate change. “The predicted effects of climate change… have the potential to disrupt our way of life and to force changes in the way we keep ourselves safe and secure,” they stated.

Nitin Desai, a former UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs says, “The risks of climate change, especially for South Asia, are quite severe.” Desai helped organise the Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg summits on sustainable development — the very concept that Sen believes is central to climate change. Yet, he differs with Sen, “We are vulnerable on virtually all parameters, so tackling climate change is in our national interest.”

In 2003, a year after the Johannesburg summit, American scenario planning experts Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall presented a report to the US Department of Defense outlining the impact of climate change on security. “It seems undeniable that severe environmental problems are likely to escalate the degree of global conflict,” they wrote. “Military confrontation may be triggered by the desperate need for natural resources such as energy, food and water.”

Climate worries have already put the Pacific island of Tuvalu on red alert. A few years ago, it started negotiating migration rights with New Zealand in case rising sea levels submerged the island. Thirty million Bangladeshis face a similar prospect. But, whether India accords them environmental refugee status may be more a political decision than a humanitarian one.

TEAMWORK AND COMMITMENT

The invasion of Normandy during World War II was an achievement of military planning and cooperation. As many as 165,000 soldiers from eight countries smashed through beaches in Northern France. The action marked the beginning of the end of what had been mankind’s bloodiest period of conflict.

World War II and climate change share many parallels, including how widespread the disruption could be. But the most important similarity is that climate change will also require the effort and coordination of many different groups of people to be beaten.

At least 1 billion people in Asia risk starvation from a drop in agricultural production potential. Half a billion people in India and China alone could lose fresh water supplies if Himalayan glaciers melt. Mass-migration and conflict will become endemic because of increased stresses over the disappearance of food and water supplies and of habitable land. Floods, droughts, soil erosion and severe storms could wipe out upto 30 per cent of all known species.
“What we take for granted might not be here for our children,” says Al Gore in his award-winning documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.

Until now, high-level debate on climate change has been mostly driven by linguists and legal experts who argue over commas and misplaced clauses. That will have to end. In 2009, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to craft a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. What eventually forms part of that treaty will be up for negotiation. That it should be bold and demanding is not. Too many lives are at stake.

A Disaster Awaits
For India, climate change will hit what are already the country’s most vulnerable natural resources — water, agriculture and public health. “Climate change will adversely impact access to such vital resources and so, will be disruptive to peace,” says Ashok Jaitly, a former IAS official and now a distinguished fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in Delhi. He feels that access to water will be the worst-off.

According to The Stern Review, a report compiled by former World Bank chief economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, in 2006, fast-melting Himalayan glaciers and snowfields, which today provide India 85 per cent of its dry-season river flow, will contribute only 30 per cent of these levels by 2050. Reduced river flow will affect hydropower generation, currently 5 per cent of India’s energy mix, and will also hit agricultural production.

Coastal flooding will damage all coastal fresh water aquifers and nearby agricultural land. It will also flood cities such as Kolkata and Mumbai, where parts of the business district lie on land reclaimed from the sea.

A report authored by Jaitly says that Kolkata already faces a 30 per cent water shortage, Mumbai 25 per cent and Delhi 22 per cent. He says that water-related riots have already broken out in Rajasthan, and that some have even led to deaths.

Groups such as the US’ Central Intelligence Agency and the UK’s Ministry of Defence predict that water wars will be common in the future. One such war could take place between India and Pakistan over rivers originating in Kashmir. There may also be conflicts with Bangladesh over the Farakka Barrage and with Nepal over the Mahakali river.

According to Jaitly, India’s biggest problem is that water is a state subject and, therefore, is poorly governed as a common resource.

Food And Agriculture
The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that 22 per cent of the world’s people are engaged in agriculture. In India, this figure is well above 60 per cent. A vast majority of them are low-income farmers, who depend on rainfall and ground water for a successful harvest. According to Kevin Watkins, director of the UN Human Development Report Office, India’s ground water levels are falling so quickly that up to 20 per cent of agricultural production is under threat. The FAO projects that India’s cereal production could fall by 18 per cent or 125 million tonnes, from temperature changes alone. This will severely impact food supplies and agricultural activity. One Indian wheat variety, PBW-343, is already under threat from higher temperatures, according to scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. PBW-343 is used on 25 per cent of land currently under wheat production.

The Stern Review estimates that a 3 degree rise in temperature will drop crop yields, placing 550 million people globally at risk of hunger. This figure excludes the 800 million who currently go without regular meals.

“Climate change will produce an agricultural crisis of a nature that has never been witnessed before,” says Gopal Krishna, an environment and health policy researcher at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. But he assures there are solutions. These include creating crop varieties more resistant to climate variances and also creating lean and efficient supply chains linking farmers’ fields to the consumers.


Health And Disease
Even a one degree rise in average temperatures could kill more than 300,000 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. For India, a tropical country, whose health indicators are already among the world’s worst, this is worrying.

Atanu Sarkar, a physician who specialises in social and environmental epidemiology and is part of Teri’s visiting faculty, explains some of the impacts. “There will be increased incidence of vector-borne diseases, water-borne diseases, heat stress and even mental stress due to a combination of external environmental factors.”

Usually, humans build natural tolerance and behavioural, cultural and technological responses against diseases that prevail in the environments they live in. But, according to a 2006 report from the British medical journal The Lancet, extreme events resulting from climate change could stress us beyond these normal adaptation capabilities.

Higher temperatures will lengthen the life cycle of mosquitoes, which will lead to more breeding - and biting. Sarkar adds that rising temperatures have already spread malaria to places, such as Haldwani and Almora.

Water-related diseases, such as cholera, diarrhea and gastroenteritis, will also proliferate. A 2005 study quoted in The Stern Review states that gastroenteritis cases increased by 25 per cent when slum-dwellers in Delhi were forced to drink contaminated water during a heat wave. Sarkar says that a disease like diarrhea alone could cost rural India upwards of Rs 7,000 crore in treatment costs and wage losses.

Communities may also be forced to relocate when their present habitats become unlivable due to floods or other climate-related disasters. This could further spread diseases.

A health crisis may yet be averted. The 2008-09 budget boosted health spending to Rs 16,534 crore, a 15 per cent increase. Additionally, 4,62,000 associated social health activists and link workers are in place, as are 177,924 village health and sanitation committees. However, with 600,000 villages in the country, this isn’t nearly enough. Sarkar also sees a problem with the level of privatisation in the urban health sector. He feels this will exclude a number of urban poor in case of an epidemic. “Private hospitals and institutions must also be brought under an epidemic and disaster management system,” he says.

The Risk Of Inaction
No one really knows what South Block thinks of climate change. This year, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s budget promised an institutional mechanism to review appropriate responses to climate change. Last year, a similar announcement created the high-level Prime Ministers’ council on climate change. But this group has yet to finalise it’s first official report. Such inconsistencies prompted Jeffery Sachs, the director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, to remark that India’s position was perceived as “ambiguous” by other countries.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says that Indian businesses face many risks from climate change. In a report entitled Building A Low-Carbon Indian Economy, it outlines some of these. For one, industries that rely on water or agriculture as raw materials will be hit hard. If energy costs rise further, inefficient production methods will become big cost-centers for companies. Additionally, consumers and investors may start to turn away from businesses that do not address environmental responsibilities. Finally, businesses could even face lawsuits for factories that emit greenhouse gases. In one such case, an Alaskan village recently filed a suit against several companies for $22 million, for damage to its environment.

A Business-like Response
Scenario planning expert Peter Schwartz believes that such reasons are enough for businesses to start acting before moods of the government, investor and customer change. “While the decision to be an early adapter is a gamble, there are significant opportunities to lead, to innovate, and to profit,” he says. Home-grown Suzlon already profits as one of the world’s leading wind-turbine makers. Venture capitalists such as John Doerr and Vinod Khosla are pouring millions of dollars into research on bio-fuels, solar energy, advanced materials and efficiency improvements. Even serial entrepreneur Richard Branson has announced a $25 million prize for breakthroughs in green technology.

Preparing for climate-related disasters has already yielded benefits. According to The Stern Review, the $3.15 billion that China spent to control floods between 1960 and 2000 has prevented losses worth at least $12 billon. Similar projects in Andhra Pradesh have yielded an even higher cost-benefit ratio of 1:13.4.

Guiding Principles
While technology will provide many answers, enabling policy will help create breakthroughs even faster. To be fair, India’s government has already done well with legislations, such as the Electricity Act of 2001, which encourages renewable energy generation, and the 2001 Energy Conservation Act.

The Finance Minister’s proposed institutional mechanism on climate change will review clean technology products, fuel emission and efficiency standards, the setting up of an emissions trading platform and the building of sustainable, greenfield cities. Excise duties on hybrid cars and electric vehicles have also been cut. Still, some of these duties are higher than those of regular petrol-driven cars. So, while Chidambaram’s intentions are good, his results simply won’t be enough.

An Umbrella Proposal
JNU researcher Krishna believes that access to vital resources can be perpetuated through a natural resources management plan (NRMP). This plan, he says should be the foundation of every other law governing the use of natural resources, such as forests, land, water, agriculture, environmental policies, mining and minerals and energy and power policies. The problem, however, is that the NRMP would require a wide-scale revision of several laws, including some parts of the Constitution itself; several items that Krishna feels should fall under an NRMP are presently state subjects.

Last year, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former US vice president Al Gore for their work on climate change, inextricably linked climate change to global peace and security. The upside is that with the right investments and policies, we may not face the day when that link is proven beyond all doubt. “We can beat climate change, but we will need to be sincere about it,” says Krishna. Mindsets in South Block and in industry must change if real progress must be made.

PIERRE MARIO FITTER

Source:(Businessworld issue 11-17 March 2008)

Read more...

Dubious Carbon Credit Projects

The opposing to dubious carbon trading waste to energy (WTE) projects in Delhi is growing. Even before the construction of the proposed projects, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (ILFS) claims to have the experience in Waste to Energy Projects in Delhi, UP, Rajasthan, Maharastra. The Delhi projects are proposed in residential areas.

Vilas Mutemwar, Union Minister of Renewable Energy has already announced 31 such projects in the parliament although Supreme Court 's last order based on its Waste to Energy Committee's report had vacated stay for only 5 such projects that too with Biomethanation Technology. If Delhi incinerator based WTE projects succeed then it would set a precedent for all of India and South Asia.

As of April, 2008, when the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Ministries are promoting the proposed a 16 MW waste to energy plant. The MCD proposes to deliver waste for free and even the New Delhi Municipal Council is joining the bandwagon as well. This mixed waste will undergo a host of mechanical and thermal processes to flush out the combustible elements. The power plant proposes to use about a third of the daily waste of the city. The project cost is estimated at Rs 175 crore. The capital investment per MW of power is almost Rs 11 crore. The coal-powered plant can be set up at about Rs 4 crore per MW. The project is located within the city across 18 acres of land in Okhla and Timarpur. The construction has started this very month.

All necessary approvals taken from Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission. It entails first convert waste into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and then use it for electricity generation. While 1300 tonnes of garbage will be used to make RDF at Okhla, around 600 tonnes will be used in Timarpur. The company running the Okhla plant will supply MCD power at a rate ranging from Rs 2.5 per unit to Rs 3.47 per unit initially. Both projects have a deadline of 2010 and are expected to cost Rs 200 crore.

It is worth noting that R K Pachauri, the IPCC Chairperson seems to have influenced the waste management chapter in the IPCC report since his organization TERI of which he is the Director General approves of incinerators despite admitting its failures. There is documentary evidence regarding the position of TERI and the IPCC report is in public domain for all to see. The technology has failed a WTE project in Delhi in early 1990s. India also lost the case in an international arbitration court. The ministry of environment is the nodal ministry for CDM. TERI report on waste management and subsequently on CDM projects in waste management betray its biases.

Meanwhile, the Timarpur-Okhla Waste Management Co Pvt Ltd (TOWMCL) the SPV between IL&FS and APTDC, has received registration from the Executive Board of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for its integrated waste to energy CDM project by the UN. The projects use process municipal waste into RDF, fluff, organic manure, biogas and products for generating power in Okhla and Timarpur. This integrated project hopes to generate 2.6 million Certified Emission Reductions (CERs)over a 10 year crediting period beginning 2009.

The proposed project includes two MSW processing plants at Okhla and Timarpur. The Okhla plant will also include a 16MW power plant using RDF and biogas derived from waste to be used as fuel for renewable power. Average RDF is about 225 TPD at both locations. A biomethantion plant with 100TPD capacity is also planned at Okhla.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has proposed to initiate a waste to energy (WTE) project at Timarpur that uses incineration. The Timarpur Waste Management Company Pvt. Ltd. (TWMCPL), a subsidiary of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (ILFS) plans to generate 6 MW of electricity from the project at Timarpur, Delhi. It plans to process and treat 214,500 MT of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and produce 69,000 MT of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) in a year as per company's project design document. The project requires an investment of Rs.580 million. The promoters claim that the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance has agreed to provide 20% of the project's cost as a capital grant.

TWMCPL is a subsidiary of IL&FS and has been created only for Timarpur project. A Memorandum of Understanding between MCD and IL&FS was signed in March 2005 by D K Mittal, the CEO of TWMCPL and Rakesh Mehta, IAS the then Commissioner of MCD. Mehta is Chief Secretary in Delhi Government. Mittal is also a serving IAS officer, besides being the CEO, Special Infrastructure Projects, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS). Mittal was earlier with Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

On 14 March 2005, MCD said that it plans to earn carbon credits from the project. TWMPCL has since applied for approval from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board to earn carbon credit. The project got listed before the board on 23 May 2006, and the board sought comments until 21 June, 2006. TWMCPL had submitted its project design document.

The Indian officials like four IAS officers Rakesh Mehta, D K Mittal, A K Gupta (MNRE) and Rajesh Kumar Shethi must answer why the 1990 plant failed in Timarpur, Delhi. The technology that failed is exactly the same technology that is being suggested now. These polluting technologies are being pushed in various disguises. It is noteworthy that Rajesh Kumar Sethi who is currently the Chairman of the CDM Executive Board was formerly Director, Indian Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF). He was appointed a CDM EB member in the first place in his capacity as a Ministry official. It would be almost impossible for him to question any project that has been incorrectly cleared by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) because CPCB comes directly under the ministry. The ministry has been inconsistent in its stance. There is a white paper of the ministry that rules out use of incinerators because it has failed. The same paper recommends biological treatment method.

Instead of taking any from the lessons from the past failures, Vilas Muttemwar union minister of state for new & renewable energy (MNRE) says that 31 waste to energy based power projects aggregating to 68.62 MW capacity in 8 states have been set up with central financial assistance from ministry of new & renewable energy. Central financial assistance of Rs 10.03 crore for waste to power projects has been provided by the ministry to various states during the last 2 years.

A Round Table on 30th April, 2008 to discuss “Incinerator based waste to energy/dubious carbon credit projects” and plan future action is scheduled atIndian Social Institute, Near Sai Baba Mandir (adjacent to Lodi Road), New Delhi.

Read more...

Imagine a Future with Car-Free Cities

Could we ever have "Carfree Cities" - the title of a recent book by J.H. Crawford?

For most Americans, the thought alone is pure heresy. Without a car, how would we get anywhere, from jobs to school to shopping to entertainment? We truly believe: cars are us.

If we waver, there's advertising to hamper deviation. Each year, the automotive industry spends $14 billion on persuasion, conveying images of shiny vehicles floating through grassy pastures or over mountain tops, with nary a traffic jam in sight.

But cities, clogged with vehicles and polluted by their exhaust, might ask about a car-free or at least a less-car-dominated future. Just look down from a high building and you'll see that somewhere between 50 percent to 70 percent of downtown space is routinely given over to traffic lanes, parking lanes and lots and garages, gas stations, drive-through banks and fast-food franchises, even plastic-flag festooned car dealerships.

Just imagine, Crawford suggests, the possibilities for people and enhanced civic places that could be created if an American city excluded cars. The pavement markings, the auto-related signs and traffic signals, the parking meters, the curbs, the vehicles - they'd all disappear.

Crawford is realistic enough to know we need to do a lot to even reduce vehicle counts in cities. That means radically expanded public transit (especially new and expanded rail systems), a big push for biking, even specialized ways to get freight into and around town with less need for diesel-spewing trucks.

Crawford has written a book the way smart folks should these days - with a pictorially rich, constantly updated Web site to back it up - www.carfree.com. Along with Jane Holtz Kay's "Asphalt Nation" and James Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" and "Home from Nowhere," the Crawford book enriches the argument for radically different 21st century approaches.

The fact is: Many of this country's cities and a high proportion of our suburbs are among the world's most pedestrian-hostile environments.

One doesn't need to advocate a car-free society, my colleague Curtis Johnson argues, to want to escape the bondage of zero choices. Example: Looking out a suburban office window, seeing a short distance to where you want to meet someone for lunch, "and knowing there's absolutely no safe way to get there except in your car."

Crawford says segregate cars to garages at the edge of cities. Johnson would let them into town but hold them at bay. He cites the example of the Lincoln Road Mall, the alluring car-free street in South Miami Beach.

People have to park their cars in Lincoln Road perimeter garages and walk. The road itself is one of America's prime people-watching spots, offering the zenith of Florida chic, a melange of the sexy young and affluent elderly mixing with regular folks and coiffured dogs, all a relaxed setting of sleek shops, restaurants and theaters in Art Deco style.

"Would you prefer," Johnson asks, "to sit on a teakwood bench on the Lincoln Road Mall observing the people, or on a concrete abutment watching a line of SUVs enter a parking garage?"

Technologically, adds Johnson, cars will get better - quieter, cleaner, sleeker, more flexible. "That's good. But we need to reverse the slave-master relationship." Europeans, he notes, love cars too - they buy expensive ones, spend what for us would be outrageously high sums on gas. "But they use autos for specialized purposes. They support a government that balances road and transit investments. They love their cars, but they're not slaves to them."

There's a fiscal side too - Americans are spending a constantly increasing share of their personal incomes on the purchasing, fueling and maintenance of personal cars and trucks. The average family's transportation outlay rose 8 percent a year in the '90s to reach $6,200 in 1998, according to a recent report - "Driven to $pend," from the Surface Transportation Policy Project and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (at www.transact.org).

Vehicles gobble up $7,000 to $9,000, as much as 22 percent of an average family's income yearly in such sprawling, auto-oriented regions as Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Phoenix. Families in more compact regions, among them Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, New York and Honolulu, pay significantly less.

All this is most serious for the poorest fifth of U.S. families. Thirty-six percent of their average income goes for cars and trucks. Result: diminished chances to save up for a home, to achieve middle-class security. Cars diminish wealth, homes add. While homes gained 3.2 percent a year in value in the '90s, cars depreciated at 8 percent a year.

As a starter, such cities as Amsterdam and Bogotá are trying car-free days - their efforts met by strong public acclaim.

No matter how you figure, it's time to stop throwing a blizzard of dollars at our auto masters.


by Neal Peirce

Neal Peirce's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is npeirce@citistates.com.
March 1, 2001 in the Seattle Times

Read more...

Combustion of Medical waste, a ‘burning issue’

Note: Health care waste is referred to as medical or biomedical waste. Medical waste should not be incinerated due to the availability of viable alternatives that are safer, cleaner, do not produce Persistent Organic Pollutants and are just as effective at disinfection. Incineration is a leading source of highly toxic dioxin, mercury, lead and other dangerous air pollutants. Environment and health groups across the globe are working to eliminate the dangerous practice of incineration, as well as to minimize the amount and toxicity of all waste generated by the health care sector.
Incineration of medical waste is not necessary from a technical standpoint. By choosing a cleaner non-incineration technology, hospitals can demonstrate their commitment to protecting public health and our environment. Incineration does not make medical waste disappear. The gas byproducts and resulting toxic ash endanger our health and the health of future generations since it is linked to birth defects, immune system disorders and other harmful health effects. No one technology is a panacea to the problem of medical waste disposal. There is no magic box solution to make medical waste disappear.


Medical waste, now a ‘burning issue’

As the Indian health sector grows and modernises, awareness about the safe disposal of the country’s growing mountain of medical waste must grow, driven by public health concerns and demands for better environmental protection.

Since medical waste is classified as more dangerous than ordinary garbage, successful hospital by-product management in India must involve strict maintenance policies to avoid the spread of disease and prevent the leaching of hazardous chemicals into ground water.

To address these concerns, the Indian government, both at the Centre and the State, and healthcare organisations must establish efficient hospital and medical waste management policies and systems.

The scale of the problem is significant; it is estimated that generation of medical wastes in India varies from an average of 3-5 kg per bed per day. The disposal of these items requires a precise and integrated national plan for waste management - from audit, collection, separation, storage and transfer to final treatment.

Sadly, there is no such hazardous waste management plan in India. Conversely, European laws require countries to separate collection and storage of solid hospital waste. A look at these good management practices.

Categorisation of Hospital Waste

The European laws require classification of waste based on the definitions in the European hazardous waste directive. These include two main categories - municipal waste and special hospital waste. Municipal waste includes all solid waste without infectious, chemical, or radioactive waste. The special hospital waste consists of several different sub-categories including infectious discarded materials from health-care activities on humans or animals which have the potential of transmitting infectious agents to humans.

Regulation and control system

The health-care waste producer is responsible for safe packaging and adequate labeling of waste to be transported off-site and for authorization of its destination. Packaging and labeling should comply with safe management of wastes from health-care activities.

Waste Separation

The key to minimisation and effective management of health-care waste in Europe is segregation and identification of the waste. Appropriate handling, treatment, and disposal of waste by type reduces costs and does much to protect public health. Segregation is always the responsibility of the waste producer and takes place close to where the waste is generated and is maintained in storage areas and during transport.

Effective waste segregation is the obligation of hospital staff. The most common way of identifying the categories of health-care waste in Europe is by sorting them into impermeable colour-coded plastic bags or containers in addition to the colour coding of waste containers.

Separation of waste in European hospitals occurs almost immediately - at the time the waste is produced, for example, when an injection is given, or when packaging is removed from supplies and equipment. Each hospital is obliged to designate a person responsible for waste management. Costs for safe treatment and disposal of hazardous health-care waste are typically more than 10 times higher than those for general waste.

When a disposable syringe is used, for example, the packaging should be placed in the general waste bin and the used syringe in the expensive sharps container.

Collection

Nursing and other clinical staff in European hospitals ensure that waste bags are tightly closed or sealed when they are about three-quarters full. A routine programme for their collection is established in each European country, as part of the hospital’s waste management plan.

Incineration

Proper incineration is the high technological approach in Europe adequately treats all types of special hospital waste and is the preferred option for cytotoxins and other pharmaceuticals.

Autoclaving

Autoclaving is also an efficient wet thermal disinfection process, practiced in European hospitals. Special hospital waste is heated with steam in an enclosed container, constructed of thick-walled steel, at high pressure. Waste management autoclaves generate a wastewater stream and European law requires a boiler with stack emissions. Also, wastewater and emissions need to be controlled.

Microwave irradiation

Application of high energy electromagnetic fields result in the oscillation and rapid heat up of liquids contained in the waste to include the liquid cell material of micro-organisms and eventually cause the destruction of all infectious components of the waste. This too, is common in Europe.

Chemical disinfection

Chemicals (mostly strong oxidants such as chlorine compounds, ammonium salts, aldehydes and phenolic compounds) are added to the waste to kill or inactivate pathogens.

Liquid wastes such as blood, urine, stools or hospital sewage are chemically treated, whereas solids and highly hazardous hospital waste such as microbiological cultures undergo a complex and expensive preparative process of separation, shredding and milling prior to the application of the mentioned chemicals. In all of Europe, chemical disinfection requires special treatment of a hazardous wastewater stream, which cannot simply be released to the public sewer canal system.

It should be stressed that the non-destructive technologies such as chemical disinfection, autoclaving, microwave or radiowave irradiation are not allowed for special hospital waste such as organs, tissues or amputated body parts. Thus, incineration or burial are the only accepted techniques for the treatment of such special type of HW.

Training

It is mandatory in Europe that training and instruction in waste separation is imparted to all employees, particularly the new ones. There are ongoing refresher courses for employees’ to update their level of knowledge at regular intervals, to discuss newly emerging problems and to look for the best solutions for the workplace.

Waste avoidance

According to the European waste legislation and in practice, the first priority of waste management is waste avoidance or reduction. In Germany, careful segregation ensures that 95 per cent of clinical waste is hazardous material, and each hospital bed is expected to take a year to fill an 18-kg bin with it.

In a swiftly growing Indian economy, the emergent health service practices are increasing perilous waste creation. This, combined with a flaccid, limp and un-regulated hazardous waste management regime in India, seems like a perfect recipe for pandemonium and spread of the deadly disease.

Mohan Murti
Business Line

Read more...

Health care waste a burning issue

As the Indian health sector grows and modernises, awareness about the safe disposal of the country’s growing mountain of medical waste must grow, driven by public health concerns and demands for better environmental protection.

Since medical waste is classified as more dangerous than ordinary garbage, successful hospital by-product management in India must involve strict maintenance policies to avoid the spread of disease and prevent the leaching of hazardous chemicals into ground water.

To address these concerns, the Indian government, both at the Centre and the State, and healthcare organisations must establish efficient hospital and medical waste management policies and systems.

The scale of the problem is significant; it is estimated that generation of medical wastes in India varies from an average of 3-5 kg per bed per day. The disposal of these items requires a precise and integrated national plan for waste management - from audit, collection, separation, storage and transfer to final treatment.

Sadly, there is no such hazardous waste management plan in India. Conversely, European laws require countries to separate collection and storage of solid hospital waste. A look at these good management practices.

Categorisation of Hospital Waste

The European laws require classification of waste based on the definitions in the European hazardous waste directive. These include two main categories - municipal waste and special hospital waste. Municipal waste includes all solid waste without infectious, chemical, or radioactive waste. The special hospital waste consists of several different sub-categories including infectious discarded materials from health-care activities on humans or animals which have the potential of transmitting infectious agents to humans.

Regulation and control system

The health-care waste producer is responsible for safe packaging and adequate labeling of waste to be transported off-site and for authorization of its destination. Packaging and labeling should comply with safe management of wastes from health-care activities.

Waste Separation

The key to minimisation and effective management of health-care waste in Europe is segregation and identification of the waste. Appropriate handling, treatment, and disposal of waste by type reduces costs and does much to protect public health. Segregation is always the responsibility of the waste producer and takes place close to where the waste is generated and is maintained in storage areas and during transport.

Effective waste segregation is the obligation of hospital staff. The most common way of identifying the categories of health-care waste in Europe is by sorting them into impermeable colour-coded plastic bags or containers in addition to the colour coding of waste containers.

Separation of waste in European hospitals occurs almost immediately - at the time the waste is produced, for example, when an injection is given, or when packaging is removed from supplies and equipment. Each hospital is obliged to designate a person responsible for waste management. Costs for safe treatment and disposal of hazardous health-care waste are typically more than 10 times higher than those for general waste.

When a disposable syringe is used, for example, the packaging should be placed in the general waste bin and the used syringe in the expensive sharps container.

Collection

Nursing and other clinical staff in European hospitals ensure that waste bags are tightly closed or sealed when they are about three-quarters full. A routine programme for their collection is established in each European country, as part of the hospital’s waste management plan.

Incineration

Proper incineration is the high technological approach in Europe adequately treats all types of special hospital waste and is the preferred option for cytotoxins and other pharmaceuticals.

Autoclaving

Autoclaving is also an efficient wet thermal disinfection process, practiced in European hospitals. Special hospital waste is heated with steam in an enclosed container, constructed of thick-walled steel, at high pressure. Waste management autoclaves generate a wastewater stream and European law requires a boiler with stack emissions. Also, wastewater and emissions need to be controlled.

Microwave irradiation

Application of high energy electromagnetic fields result in the oscillation and rapid heat up of liquids contained in the waste to include the liquid cell material of micro-organisms and eventually cause the destruction of all infectious components of the waste. This too, is common in Europe.

Chemical disinfection

Chemicals (mostly strong oxidants such as chlorine compounds, ammonium salts, aldehydes and phenolic compounds) are added to the waste to kill or inactivate pathogens.

Liquid wastes such as blood, urine, stools or hospital sewage are chemically treated, whereas solids and highly hazardous hospital waste such as microbiological cultures undergo a complex and expensive preparative process of separation, shredding and milling prior to the application of the mentioned chemicals. In all of Europe, chemical disinfection requires special treatment of a hazardous wastewater stream, which cannot simply be released to the public sewer canal system.

It should be stressed that the non-destructive technologies such as chemical disinfection, autoclaving, microwave or radiowave irradiation are not allowed for special hospital waste such as organs, tissues or amputated body parts. Thus, incineration or burial are the only accepted techniques for the treatment of such special type of HW.

Training

It is mandatory in Europe that training and instruction in waste separation is imparted to all employees, particularly the new ones. There are ongoing refresher courses for employees’ to update their level of knowledge at regular intervals, to discuss newly emerging problems and to look for the best solutions for the workplace.

Waste avoidance

According to the European waste legislation and in practice, the first priority of waste management is waste avoidance or reduction. In Germany, careful segregation ensures that 95 per cent of clinical waste is hazardous material, and each hospital bed is expected to take a year to fill an 18-kg bin with it.

In a swiftly growing Indian economy, the emergent health service practices are increasing perilous waste creation. This, combined with a flaccid, limp and un-regulated hazardous waste management regime in India, seems like a perfect recipe for pandemonium and spread of the deadly disease.

Read more...

MNRE Claims 69 MW from Waste to Energy projects

Promotes Manifestly Polluting Technology

The composition of the Indian waste as per Central Pollution Control Board is over
43 % inert contents and 44 % organic content that is manifestly unfit for incineration and still the same is promoted to simply corner subsidy and carbon credit.

When the Delhi waste to energy plant that operated from January, 1990 onwards till March, 1990 failed. In July, 1990, Government of India decided to shut-down the plant The technology provider and the ministry in question was asked to explain the failure by a case that filed against them. The RDF-incinerator technology was a Danish technology from a Danish company.

Half a dozen of these dubious projects were stopped in 2002-2003 but this time around in the name of carbon credit ...fraudulent claims are being made with impunity.

The Indian officials like four IAS officers Rakesh Mehta, D K Mittal, A K Gupta (MNRE) and Rajesh Kumar Shethi must answer why the 1990 plant failed in Timarpur, Delhi. The technology that failed is exactly the same technology that is being suggested now. These polluting technologies are being pushed in various disguises.

But conflict of interest and contempt of court is evident because the Supreme Court in its last order had approved only 5 projects against this order the minister announced 31 projects in the parliament.

The plant was built and designed by a Danish Operator M/s Volund Miljotecknik A/S, Denmark (“Volund”) on a turnkey basis. There is a Danish connection to waste management it seems because even the waste master plan on Delhi has been prepared by a Danish firm COWI that also says RDF is a polluting technology and still the same Delhi municipal corporation is promoting it

Unmindful of the lessons from the paqst failures, Vilas Muttemwar union minister of state for new & renewable energy (MNRE) says that 31 waste to energy based power projects aggregating to 68.62 MW capacity in 8 states have been set up with central financial assistance from ministry of new & renewable energy. He says that commercial wind power projects of about 7844 MW capacity have been installed in the country through private investment.

He adds that central financial assistance of Rs 10.03 crore for waste to power projects has been provided by the ministry to various states during the last 2 years.

There is an immediate need for a white paper on the current status of all the waste to energy projects before any failed technology is put to use to deal with waste and make the citizens the gunea pig for their experiments with mispalced claims about carbon credits..

It is noteworthy that Rajesh Kumar Sethi who is currently the Chairman of the CDM Executive Board was formerly Director, Indian Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF). He was appointed a CDM EB member in the first place in his capacity as a Ministry official. It would be almost impossible for him to question any project that has been incorrectly cleared by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) because CPCB comes directly under the ministry. The ministry has been inconsistent in its stance. There is a white paper of the ministry that rules out use of incinerators because it has failed. The same paper recommends biological treatment method.

R K Pachauri, the IPCC Chairperson seems to have influenced the waste management chapter in the IPCC report since his organization TERI of which he is the Director General approves of incinerators despite admitting its failures. There is documentary evidence regarding the position of TERI and the IPCC report is in public domain for all to see. The technology has failed a WTE project in Delhi in early 1990s. India also lost the case in an international arbitration court. The ministry of environment is the nodal ministry for CDM. TERI report on waste management and subsequently on CDM projects in waste management betray its biases.

Delhi waste to energy project gets CDM Registration

Meanwhile, the Timarpur-Okhla Waste Management Co Pvt Ltd (TOWMCL) the SPV between IL&FS and APTDC, has received registration from the Executive Board of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for its integrated waste to energy CDM project by the UN. The projects use process municipal waste into RDF, fluff, organic manure, biogas and products for generating power in Okhla and Timarpur. This integrated project hopes to generate 2.6 million Certified Emission Reductions (CERs)over a 10 year crediting period beginning 2009.

The proposed project includes two MSW processing plants at Okhla and Timarpur. The Okhla plant will also include a 16MW power plant using RDF and biogas derived from waste to be used as fuel for renewable power. Average RDF is about 225 TPD at both locations. A biomethantion plant with 100TPD capacity is also planned at Okhla.
This despite the fact that it does not meet the criteria of additionality.

Read more...