By IAN PETER GUANZON, Contributor
UP Cebu (UPC) faces concerns over the lack of hazardous waste disposal as chemical wastes remain in one of the laboratory rooms in the university, prompting calls for the establishment of a hazardous waste storage facility.
Bea Nicole Montaño, a second-year biology student, expressed worries about the lack of hazardous waste disposal in UPC.
“After performing experiments, there’s always the confusion of where to throw the chemicals used in the activities,” Montaño said. “Although most of the experiments we have encountered did not deal with highly toxic chemicals.”
These chemical wastes date back prior to the start of the pandemic, and are currently stored in the Ecology Laboratory (Room 126E). While there are guidelines on the entry and usage of the laboratory room, there are no warnings or restricting signages for this specific room despite the hazardous waste.
Students from the BS Biology program use laboratory rooms for their courses such as organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and physical chemistry, among others. These courses use hazardous substances for experiments and research works.
Because of the lack of a proper disposal system, chemical wastes such as ferric chloride, methanol, ethanol, inorganic acid, methyl orange, and mercury, among others are just stored in containers inside the Ecology Laboratory. These chemical wastes were previously stored in the Chemistry Laboratory (Room 125B), before the return of in-person classes.
Toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes like mercury, cyanide, arsenic, infectious waste, and pathological wastes present a grave threat to both human health and the environment if not properly disposed of, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
These threats include lung damage, severe skin acne disease, failure of various internal organs such as liver or kidney malfunction, and effects on mental processes, among others.
Hazardous chemicals, which may not be thrown in the laboratory sink, must properly be treated and disposed of by a third-party provider accredited by the DENR Environmental Management Bureau before being disposed of, according to DENR Administrative Order 2013-22.
Penalty for improper disposal of hazardous waste ranges from P10,000 to P50,000, per the DENR’s Revised Procedures and Standards for the Management of Hazardous Wastes.
For now, though, the Department of Biology and Environmental Science (DBES) is just taking action to mitigate the risks of possible exposure to stored hazardous chemicals.
“Given our situation right now, I don't want to say that it's improper but that's the best that the department can do in order to mitigate any associated hazard and risk about this. Dili man sad ta pwede makapataka og labay ani sulod sa campus (We cannot dispose of the chemical wastes improperly in the university premises),” said Louise Ano-os, vice chairperson for internal affairs of the UP Ecological Society, an academic organization for biology students.
Fleurdeliz Maglangit, a chemistry faculty, said that while there are efforts made to dispose of the stored chemical wastes, there are legal requirements the department must follow. In addition to having a third-party disposal provider, another requirement for the treatment of chemical wastes is for the campus to have its own hazardous waste facility. Such a facility, however, requires funding to be built.
“We are constrained to dispose of the chemicals because there are legal requirements that DENR requires us, which include a hazardous waste storage facility that will meet their requirements,” Maglangit said.
Republic Act 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act states that hazardous waste generators are obligated to establish a designated storage facility for these dangerous substances. Violations of the law may be penalized with a fine ranging from P10,000 to P50,000.
The DBES has submitted a hazardous waste storage facility proposal to the UP Cebu administration. However, UPC was not able to fund it, leading to the decision to raise the proposal to the UP System.
The department submitted its Chemical and Hazardous Waste Management Plan to the UP system. The system administration has yet to respond to DBES’s proposal.
UPC Chancellor Leo Malagar, in an interview, said that his administration was not able to immediately fund the waste management plan due to budget constraints.
“When I assumed office last June 2022, we [were] using the budget proposed in 2021. It is not in one of the line items in that budget,” Malagar said.
Malagar, nonetheless, pledged to prioritize the safety of constituents and the sustainability of waste management practices, acknowledging the environmental risks associated with waste handling and disposal.
For Montaño, UPC’s lack of a proper hazardous waste management system is indicative of UPC’s lack of funding.
“Knowing the information made sense of what we know about the current situation of waste disposal. It was not clear to us why it was so but knowing that there has been an acknowledgment of the problem and ongoing efforts from the department is promising. Clearly, the call for higher state subsidies and no budget cuts is relevant to this matter,” Montaño said. ●
Ian Peter Guanzon is a student journalist taking up communication at UP Cebu. He previously served as a news writer at Tug-ani, UP Cebu's student publication, prior to his candidacy for the UP Cebu University Student Council.
