WB STUDY: JEEPNEY DRIVERS ARE LEADING VICTIMS OF AIR POLLUTION. Jeepney drivers are the leading victims of air pollution in the Philippines in 2002, a recent World Bank report showed.
The report said the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) is highest among jeepney drivers, affecting 32.5 percent of them. Citing the study of the University of the Philippines' College of Public Health, the World Bank said that commuters had the lowest prevalence for COPD at 14.8 percent.
The World Bank noted that jeepney drivers are highly at risk of acquiring pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) with 17.5 percent of them affected last year. Commuters come in second at nine percent. Even bus drivers, in their air-conditioned buses, cannot escape the effects of air pollution. They ranked no. 2 among those affected by COPD at 16.4 percent.
Doctors say that COPD, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, can be aggravated by air pollution. Those with COPD are also more susceptible to PTB, which is caused by an airborne bacteria. Victims of COPD suffer from chronic cough with phlegm, wheezing, and shortness of breath. They also sustain irreversible damage to the lungs. PTB sufferers' lungs also develop permanent scars. At least 22 million Filipinos are suffering or exposed to various stages of TB. This means that one out of four Filipinos are exposed to the disease.
Source: Philippine Star, 24 January 2003
AIR POLLUTION KILLS 2,000 PINOYS A YEAR. How much does filthy air cost? The annual payment we make for breathing dirty air, according to the World Bank, is: 2,000 lives lost prematurely and $1.5 billion in lost wages, medical treatment in the urban sprawl of Metro Manila, and the cities of Cebu, Davao and Baguio (P79.5 billion) — a figure equivalent to two percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP).
The annual death toll due to air pollution was cited by Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza from the World Bank’s Philippines Environment Monitor 2002 report. Mendoza also cited the report as showing that as many as 9,000 Filipinos in these urban areas suffer from chronic bronchitis. After baring these alarming figures, Mendoza said the Arroyo administration is firm in its resolve to immediately implement the Clean Air Act of 1999 (Republic Act 8749).
The World Bank report quoted a study by the University of the Philippines’ College of Public Health that traced the causes of the high mortality and morbidity rates due to respiratory illnesses like bronchitis to "the very high fine particulate emissions (PM10) generated by diesel engines, emissions from factories and power plants and solid waste burning." These fine particulate emissions, the report said, are either emitted directly or are formed and accumulate in the atmosphere.
Health records show that deaths caused by various forms of respiratory diseases run into scores of thousands a year, including those in far-flung barrios thought to be unaffected by air pollution, Mendoza said. Dirty air, he said, definitely contributes to the worsening of many respiratory diseases, even if air pollution does not directly cause these deaths.
The loss of lives to filthy air is not the only price paid by the public. The World Bank report said the total cost of exposure to particulate matter in Metro Manila and the three other urban areas comes to a whopping $430 million (P22.8 billion). Some 80 percent of air pollution is generated by mobile polluters: Motor vehicles.
Source: Philippine Star, 20 January 2003
TRICYCLE DRIVERS WIN REPRIEVE. Smoggy skies over Metro Manila will take a little longer to clear, after tricycle drivers on Monday won a one-month reprieve from the Clean Air Act that came into force at the start of the year.
Hundreds of drivers brought traffic in the National Capital Region to an even slower crawl than usual as they took their vehicles in a procession to Malacanang to protest the new anti-pollution law. The Clean Air Act calls for emission tests and the phasing out of two-stroke engines. The reprieve--a suspension for one month of the Metro Manila Development Authority's resolution phasing out two-stroke tricycles--came after the drivers' prayer rally on Mendiola caused a major traffic jam on streets near the Palace.
Environment Secretary Elisea Gozun said MMDA Resolution No. 02-36 would be suspended for a month while the government conducted a review. The National Confederation of Tricycle Drivers and Operators Association of the Philippines (Nactodap) said the resolution jeopardized the livelihood of thousands of tricycle drivers. "Its implementation this January is the start of our sector's Calvary. This government continues to create laws that push our members deeper into poverty," said Ariel Lim, Nactodap national president.
But in his weekly news briefing, MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando said the drivers need not worry about losing their source of livelihood. He said the resolution did not apply to those who already have franchises, whether they have two-stroke engines or not.
Nactodap estimated that 7,500 to 10,000 drivers converged on Mendiola on Monday, but police said the actual number was only a tenth of that, anywhere between 750 and 1,000. But the presence of hundreds of tricycles held up traffic on Recto, Morayta and Legarda avenues and Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard. Gozun and Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza led government negotiators who talked with Nactodap officials. At around 3 p.m., the two sides reached an agreement after holding negotiations at an eatery on Mendiola.
Aside from the suspension, the government also agreed to set up an inter-agency committee under the Department of Transportation and Communications, that would include representatives from Nactodap, non-government organizations, manufacturers and other government agencies. The committee will help ensure that tricycle drivers are consulted in the shaping of new government policy affecting their sector.
The one-month reprieve may have won the day for drivers and operators, but the country of 80 million people has been losing the battle against smog and its ill effects on health. In November, the World Bank warned that air pollution would cost the Philippines almost 1.5 billion dollars per year in medical treatment, lost wages and low productivity. A study by the World Bank showed fine particle emissions caused an estimated 2,000 premature deaths and 9,000 cases of chronic bronchitis each year in the nation's four largest cities.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 7 January 2003
WITHOUT LEGISLATION, GOVERNMENT HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO ENFORCE CLEAN AIR ACT. Malacanang conceded yesterday that the government has no choice but to enforce the Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1999 starting this month, after Congress failed to pass a joint resolution for its temporary suspension.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye yesterday said that President Arroyo is mandated to enforce the law unless there is a joint resolution, which has the force and effect of an enabling law if passed by both chambers of Congress to effectively suspend its implementation. A six-month suspension was earlier proposed because implementing the Clean Air Act would mean additional costs to operators of public transport utilities.
Bunye said the proposed passage of the joint resolution was first mulled during the most recent meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) convened by Mrs. Arroyo at Malacanang with leaders of Congress. "The Clean Air Act... is a law and there were talks, I think in one (of the) LEDAC meetings attended by congressmen and senators. There was a proposal that it might need a joint resolution to temporarily suspend the implementation of the Clean Air Act for six months," he said. Bunye noted that "this joint resolution did not push through. So the implementation of the Clean Air Act proceeds."
He was reacting to warnings by leaders of jeepney operators’ and drivers’ associations that they will have to file a petition for fare hikes to compensate for the additional expenses they would incur in order to comply with the Clean Air Act. The act, which was made into law under Republic Act 8749, mandates all jeepney and public transport operators to use environment-friendly yet more expensive unleaded diesel that would require them to recondition their diesel engines, which could prove costly to them.
Bunye urged public transport groups to comply with the CAA and cooperate with the government, particularly with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Transportation and Communications, to help them reduce the cost of complying with this law.
Source: Philippine Star, 3 January 2003