Toxicology website launched

MANILA, Philippines - Government and non-government organizations yesterday launched a website that provides access to many important toxicological resources to be used by young researchers and regulatory agencies like the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).

Toxicology expert Dr. Kenneth Hartigan Go said the Philippine Toxicology Website would help BFAD and other regulatory agencies to determine how safe a product is before it goes to the market.

Go said it would serve as a “one-stop site” which offers information from scientific institutions, research agencies and industries involved in chemicals and toxicology.

“Now if you don’t invest in toxicology, regulation is not going to do a very good job. They are going to allow things that should not be allowed and we get into big problems,” Go told reporters during a health forum in Quezon City.

For instance, he said, China has allowed the production of cough syrup containing industrial solvent instead of pharmaceutical solvent, causing the deaths of many kids.

Go also alleged that industrial solvent is also used in the production of toothpaste in China.

“I don’t know if it’s intentional or contamination or industrial accident… if the regulatory agency is not doing their job properly then we have this kind of problems,” said Go, executive director of the Zuellig Foundation.

Go was a former consultant at the National Poison Control and Information Service of the Philippine General Hospital.

Go said the website, which can be accessed through the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (www.pchrd.dost.gov.ph), aims to serve both local and international clients who are looking for useful information for their enterprises.

Go said the project would also encourage foreign firms to put up chemical factories in the country that could generate jobs.

“It does help address one of the key critical obstacles that businessmen have been complaining that if we want to come to this country we don’t know what the rules and regulations are,” Go said.

He said the investors have to go to the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Health and Department of Environment and Natural Resources to get different permits.

“In the electronic platform that we did, we gathered data together through a research process, we got the agencies together and linked up so that rules are harmonized,” he said.

Go said the website is also expected to inspire young Filipino researchers to conduct extensive studies on the science of chemicals and toxicology to boost the country’s pool of experts in the field.

Go said the website, which cost about P100,000 to put up, was partially funded by the PCHRD, the research arm of the Department of Science and Technology.