Peru Opens Public Consultations on Draft National Environment Policy / Peru pone en consulta pública borrador de política nacional del ambiente
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009Peru’s Environment Ministry (Minam) is circulating for public comment its proposal for a National Environment Policy. Interested parties can submit comments and suggestions through a web-based form. Minam will also be holding consultative workshops on the draft Policy in Lima and four regions. The draft Policy is clear and concise, with a set of overarching […]
A Symbolic Ban of Asbestos
Thursday, January 29th, 2009Brazil’s Environment Minister, Carlos Minc, just banned asbestos. Well, not quite. He announced at the World Social Forum that has banned, through an administrative rule (portaria), the use of any product containing asbesto fibers in construction or goods acquired by the Environment Ministry (MMA) and its associated organs: the national environment agency, IBAMA, the Chico […]
Espirito Santo Prepares for Chemical Emergencies
Thursday, January 8th, 2009Five years ago when President Lula issued the decree launching the National Plan for the Prevention of, Preparation for and Response to Environmental Emergencies Involving Hazardous Chemicals Products (“P2R2”), a cornerstone of the Plan’s implementation was the establishment by all the states and the Federal District (DF) of their own committees (“CE-P2R2”) to coordinate planning, […]
An E-Waste/RoHS Bill For Uruguay
Monday, September 29th, 2008Earlier this month a bill was introduced in the Uruguayan legislature to “create a management system for waste from electrical and electronic apparatuses.” Uruguay, it seems, is joining Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica among the Latin American nations finally moving to tackle the WEEE issue. The bill is relatively short (2 pages) and simple, […]
Getting Mercury Out of Healthcare
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008In July the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) proudly announced that all public hospitals within city limits had eliminated their inventory of old fashioned mercury thermometers and replaced them with digital ones. Why is that significant? A 2006 study done by CABA’s Environmental Health office found that the City’s public hospitals emitted about 40 […]
If You Can’t Find It Here, You May Not Find It
Friday, February 1st, 2008Quite a few Temas Blog readers noticed the absence of new posts for several weeks. I was fully occupied with work day-and-night on the final stages of the total revamp and re-launch of my main site, temasactuales.com Although work continues on the Spanish and Portuguese versions (coming soon!), the burden has lightened enough that I […]
Chile Reforms Its EIA System
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007Synopsis in English: Last week in a joint press conference featuring the Chilean Ministers of Environment, Treasury, Economy, Energy and Mining presented a package of measures intended to make the national Environment Impact Assessment System (Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental – SEIA) more “efficient” and “agile.” The measures were mostly drafted by the National […]
Country Profiles of Environmental Burden of Disease for LAC
Friday, August 3rd, 2007Several weeks ago the World Health Organization (WHO) released what it billed as "the first ever country-by-country analysis of the impact environmental factors have on health." It phrased it that way ("country-by-country") because it released a more global analysis of the issue last year — in fact, that report was the subject of one of […]
Guyana Joins Ranks of LAC Nations Ratifying POPs Convention
Sunday, July 29th, 2007The Guyanese Government announced this week that it will ratify the Stockholm Convention on Pesistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Stockholm Convention (text: English, Spanish) commits Contracting Parties (CPs) to eliminate, severely restrict and/or minimize the production, use and trade of 12 POPs — nine pesticides, three byproducts of industrial processes and of combustion (dioxins, furans […]
Assessing Children’s Vulnerability to Chemical Exposures
Saturday, July 28th, 2007The report discussed in the press release below is actually from the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), for which the World Health Organization (WHO) serves as secretariat, but is also cosponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It represents an emerging international (not just North American or European) consensus […]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »