Call to ban PCB imports

Disna Mudalige

The Center for Environmental Justice (CEJ) recently requested the Environment Ministry to stop the importation of PCB (Polychlorinated Biphenyl), commonly known as carcinogen, contaminated electrical items, CEJ Executive Director Hemantha Withanage said.

PCB is commonly used in the manufacture of electricity related items and used in oil based paints and waxes. They are synthetic organic chemicals either in liquid or solid forms and are highly toxic. “Because of their good installation properties and stability at high heat and pressure they are used ignoring the damage that they are liable to cause to humanity. PCBs accumulate in of humans and animal bodies, specially in the fat tissue.

In humans, concentration of PCBs in fat tissues is over hundred times greater than the food they consume. They cause skin rashes, damage the lungs and cause irregularities in the menstrual cycle and lower the immune responses”, he explained.

“PCB production was banned by the United States Congress in 1979 and by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001 due to its toxicity and harmfulness. Even though Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Stockholm Convention no legislation has been introduced to ban the import of PCBs and to regulate them to date” he said.

“According to the Customs data, there is a severe increase of PCB contaminated items imported to Sri Lanka. The imported amount of PCB containing or contaminated electrical capacitors in 2008 is 4341kg.

The data shows that Sri Lanka imports and exports PCB containing or contaminated electrical transformers, static converters and inductors.

According to the Preliminary Inventory of PCB done by the Environment Ministry in 2006 there are 1098 transformers in Sri Lanka contaminated with PCBs at levels higher than 50ppm.

The results of the study reveal that 60 percent of the tested samples proved to be PCB positive”, he pointed out.