IPEN

For the past six years, EcoWaste Coalition, an IPEN participating organization from the Philippines that promotes chemical safety and zero waste, has been leading a movement to demand that Canada repatriate illegally dumped toxic household waste, which has been rotting in Philippine ports.

Press Release

Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental/Quezon City.  The waste and pollution watch group, EcoWaste Coalition, applauded the departure from the Philippines of 51 containers of illegal garbage exports from South Korea extolling the move as a “triumph for environmental justice, morality and the rule of law.”

FULL REPORT

PRESS RELEASE

High levels of toxic substances have been found in over 32% of children’s toys tested in a recent analysis of toxic heavy metals and chemicals in toys on the market in the Philippines. None of the samples, including a toy with 198,900 ppm of lead, provided a list of chemicals that make up a toy nor provided text or graphic warnings. The study, released on the Universal Children’s Day on November 20, the day when the UN General Assembly adopted the “Declaration of the Rights of the Child” in 1959 as well as the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” in 1989, underscores the need to expedite the enactment of the proposed Safe and Non-Toxic Children’s Product Act in the Philippines. The Act seeks to regulate the manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of children’s toys, school supplies, childcare articles and other related products containing toxic chemicals beyond the permissible limits. The study was conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition, a public interest NGO in the Philippines, and IPEN, a global network of public interest health and environment NGOs.