MANILA, Philippines — As the nation awaits the New Year countdown, environmental watchdog EcoWaste Coalition has reiterated its appeal to the public to shun practices that tend to endanger human health and the environment.
“We appeal to the Filipinos to refrain from engaging in activities that can contaminate the air, soil and water with pollutants, and result in an array of health problems, especially for the vulnerable populations, as well as start fires,” EcoWaste national coordinator Aileen Lucero said over the weekend.
The group asked the public to refrain from lighting firecrackers, releasing balloons and sky lanterns as well as using improvised polyvinyl chloride or PVC plastic pipe cannon called “boga.”
EcoWaste reiterated that lighting firecrackers and fireworks, including PVC “boga,” which can cause burns and injuries, worsens the air quality, diminishes visibility, sets off or aggravates health problems and increases noise pollution as well as harms cats, dogs and other animals with hypersensitive sense of hearing.
As for releasing balloons and sky lanterns to welcome the New Year, EcoWaste said the practice could be harmful to aquatic animals that can become entangled in balloon strings, trapped in lantern frames or ingest such marine litter by mistake.
“Sky lanterns cannot be controlled and may drop anywhere, causing structural fires and wildfires,” the group said.
EcoWaste said the public must also avoid mixing of discards as well as burning of garbage and used car tires.
The mixing of discards from the end-of-the-year household cleanup and from New Year’s Eve revelry adds to the volume, as well as toxicity, of holiday trash hauled to disposal facilities, EcoWaste pointed out.
“Keeping waste materials separated into a few categories prevents cross-contamination and facilitates the reuse, repair, recycling and composting of discarded resources,” the group said.
The open burning of trash before, during or after the revelry, EcoWaste said, could generate pollutants that can contaminate the air and cause a range of health effects, including eye, throat and skin irritations, shortness of breath and headaches as well as respiratory diseases.
Burning chlorinated waste materials, the group pointed out, would lead to the formation and release of dioxins and furans, which are persistent organic pollutants linked to reproductive, developmental, immune and nervous system disorders as well as cancers, EcoWaste noted.