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Unsustainable Development - Brasilian Organizations denounce on pollutant emissions
luciaof netvisao.pt luciaof netvisao.pt
Domingo, 7 de Janeiro de 2007 - 13:31:53 WET
www.ecoagencia.com.br
3/1/2007 – Unsustainable Development
Organizations fighting against chemical pollution denounce press release
on Resolution of the Brazilian National Environment Council (CONAMA).
CONAMA's Councilors approved a Resolution that will allow higher levels of
pollution emission.
Brasília, Brazil- ACPO, Anti Pollutants Association (POPs), supported by
the environmentalist NGOs representatives at CONAMA (Bicuda Ecológica –
southeast region; OCA BRASIL – center-west region; and APROMAC – south
region) is circulating the press release seen below criticizing the
posture of the CONAMA's councilors who approved a resolution which will
allow the emission of high levels of atmospheric pollution for new fixed
sources (new plants), such as combustion of fuel, natural gas, crushed
sugarcane, oil refineries, cellulose plants, lead smelting, primary
aluminum, glass fusion furnaces, cement kilns, fertilizers production,
metallurgy. See the integral resolution in Portuguese at: PropResolFontesFixas_CTAJ_Limpa.pdf
ACPO is a member of several international networks working against
chemical pollution such as IPEN - International POPs Elimination Network,
GAIA - Global Anti-Incineration Alliance and HCWH - Health Care Without
Harm.
Before voting, APROMAC, a NGO councilor to CONAMA, in partnership with
ACPO, delivered a letter warning the councilors about the recent report of
the WHO that requires the world governments to reduce their allowed limits
since there is enough data showing that the current allowed limits are
very high, and they are strongly linked to a lot of diseases in human
beings. In the letter, the NGOs asked that the resolution proposal should
not be discussed or voted before being reviewed under the light of this
important report. Besides, the NGOs explained that the proposal did not
allow an effective social control by the communities which will be
affected by these new limits, by delegating to the inspecting
environmental agencies the power to set forth the limits without
consulting the populations. The NGOs also reminded that Brazil is a
signatory of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants,
and that this resolution is a huge set back in terms of the implementation
process of the Convention in the country, foreseen to begin in the 2007.
Furthermore, the NGOs observed that the limits proposed in the Resolution
are much above the limits in force in Brazil, and asked clarification
about the technical sources and references on which the limits now
proposed were based. The requested explanation was not given by the
chair of the Technical Chamber of Environment Control and Quality, Cláudio
Alonso, who is also an officer of the State Environment Agency (CETESB/SP)
of the State of Sao Paulo, and enthusiastically supportive of the
proposal. See the APROMAC's and ACPO's letter, with the technical opinion
by Chemical Engineer Élio Lopes, consultant to the Ministry of Health and
Public Prosecutor of the State of Sao Paulo:ParecZuleica_ACPOFontesFixas.pdf
However, the resolution was approved without first answering the NGOs
request. After approval, APROMAC and other 9 NGOs councilors of CONAMA
signed an urgent petition requesting explanations and which measures will
be taken by the Ministries of Health, Environment and Labor to face the
consequences of the implementation of such resolution. The document
highlights the deficient technical and human structure of the state and
municipal environment agencies, the poor public health attendance
structure in the states and municipalities, and questions the effects on
the workers' health at these plants in the whole national territory and
which measures will be taken by the authorities.
This is the release:
Retrogression in Environmental Quality
President Lula does not stop at words, he advances very quickly his
unfortunate policy of environmental "unlocking" by restricting the action
of the Environment Councils.
After his statements, where he affirmed that is necessary to unlock the
environment impediments to develop the country – qualifying
environmentalists, indigenous and quilombo (former African slaves
communities) people, the Public Prosecutors and the Union Financial Court
as being the real impediments, the representative of the State of Sao
Paulo Government to CONAMA, Cláudio Alonso, supported said discourse and
repeated enthusiastically, during the CONAMA's ordinary meeting held in
November 29th and 30th, that "the environment cannot be an impediment to
development".
Invested with this logic, CONAMA followed the determinations of the
Brazilian President and approved the resolution named "Fixed Sources"
which disregards the new WHO recommendations to reduce drastically the
maximum limits acceptable for air pollutants, which aim at preserving and
ensuring the human beings' health.
The environmentalist bloc requested that the vote be postponed to allow
for an adaptation of the resolution to the new quality standards, but it
was rejected by Claudio Alonso, chair of the Technical Chamber in charge.
The approved resolution, besides allowing the pollutant sources to keep
the current emission limits, which has poisoned the air of most Brazilian
cities, deprived the state and city environment councils the power to
decide on the matter, since as from the publication of the resolution,
only the state and city environment agencies, which are concurrently
license grantors and inspectors, have the power to regulate the
legislation not only to reduce the limits, but to increase them at their
discretion.
This situation, besides being administratively ambiguous, also deprived
the Councils the right to be consulted on matters such as emission limits,
air basin pollution support capacity and the destiny of the saturated
areas. The resolution restricted the Environment councils in such a manner
that they cannot discuss the matter any more, since now the environment
agency has not obligation to consult them thereon.
Signed:
- ACPO –AntiPollutants Association [POPs] / State of Sao Paulo
- APROMAC –Environment Protection Association of Cianorte / State of Parana
- OCA BRASIL – State of Goiás
- Quality of Life, Environment and Historic Heritage Defense Association
- Bicuda Ecológica (State of Rio de Janeiro)
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