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Loading ...Modificar la Norma Andina sobre Plaguicidas
Monday, August 31st, 2009Desde la Comunidad Andina (CAN): Elaboran propuesta para modificar norma comunitaria de plaguicidas Los responsables de los servicios oficiales de Sanidad Agropecuaria de los países de la Comunidad Andina se reunieron la semana pasada, en Lima, para elaborar una propuesta de modificación de la Norma Andina para el Registro y Control de Plaguicidas Químicos de […]
Mesoamerica Shows the Way to DDT-Free Malaria Control
Thursday, May 7th, 2009The World Health Organization (WHO) has confidently announced that they can still roll back malaria worldwide while phasing out the use of the hazardous pesticide Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT) through the use of pesticide-free Integrated Vector Management (IVM) techniques. Why is WHO so confident it can be done? Because they have already successfully tested the proposition through […]
Brazil Plans to Ban or Restrict 12 Pesticides
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Brazilian health officials are concerned. In 2008 Brazil became the largest consumer of pesticides in the world, surpassing the US with a market of more than US$7 billion. Yet many of the pesticides now manufactured in, or imported into, Brazil and widely used there have been banned or severely restricted for health and environmental reasons […]
Finally, a Chance for a Global Mercury Accord / Por fin, un chance para un acuerdo global sobre el mercurio
Saturday, February 21st, 2009When the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council (GC) considered and agreed on the draft decision on chemicals management, including mercury, this past Thursday, I was in the room. It’s difficult to say which emotion filled the conference room more — joy or excitement. There was plenty of both. This decision had been many years […]
Comisión argentina comienza trabaajo sobre los agroquímicos
Thursday, February 5th, 2009Desde la Secretaria de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable (SAyDS): Comenzó a funcionar comisión para prevenir intoxicación por agroquímicos Presidida por la Ministra de Salud de la Nación, Graciela Ocaña, y con la presencia del Secretario de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable, Homero Bibiloni, sesionó hoy por primera vez la Comisión Nacional de Investigación para la prevención, […]
Bolivia Bans Dozens of Pesticides, Activists Call for Rest of LAC to Follow
Monday, February 2nd, 2009At the close of the meeting of the Latin American section of the Pesticide Action Network (known by its Spanish acronym RAP-AL) in La Paz last week, host country Bolivia announced that it was banning all pesticides with active ingredients classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as extremely (Class 1a) or highly (Class 1b) […]
Colombia Finally Joins the POPs Convention / Por fin Colombia es Estado Parte del Convenio sobre los COPs
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009On 20 January Colombia finally joined the ranks of Contracting Parties (CPs) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Stockholm Convention commits CPs to eliminate, severely restrict and/or minimize the production, use and trade of 12 POPs — nine pesticides (including DDT), three byproducts of industrial processes and of combustion (dioxins, furans […]
A Unique GEO for MEROSUR
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Last month a GEO for the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR or MERCOSUL) was finally unveiled with much fanfare by representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the meeting of MERCOSUR Environment Ministers. What’s a GEO? It’s probably the best known type of comprehensive environmental diagnosis available. “GEO” was the acronym for “Global […]
Unique Customs Cooperation Pact on Multilateral Environmental Agreements
Monday, December 29th, 2008Earlier this month Ministers from Central America and the Dominican Republic responsible for the environment, agriculture, health, defense and customs signed an Inter-Institutional Cooperation Convention for the Control of Imports, Exports and Transit Related to Multilateral Environment Agreements. The accord is supposedly the first of its kind in the world (I would be interested to […]
Update: Colombian Eco-Authorities Now Have Sharp Teeth?
Friday, August 8th, 2008Last year I did a post about Colombia’s Environment Minister, Juan Lozano Ramírez, calling upon that country’s Senate to finally give environmental authorities “teeth” — a true, tough environmental sanctions regime. Proposals for such a law had been before the national legislature for years (Lozano says it’s been decades). A few weeks ago the legislature […]