The Ministry of Environment has requested the Customs Agency to ban the import of florescent light bulbs. Environment Minister Francisco Dominguez Brito has made the request to Yokasta Guzman Santos, the director of Public Procurement and to Enrique Ramirez Paniagua, the Customs Agency director.
Domínguez explained that in October 2013, the Dominican Republic signed in Japan, the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which is still pending ratification by the Dominican Congress. The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. The objective of the convention is to protect human health and the environment from release of mercury from gas emissions and the leaching of mercury into the water and soil. The convention called for a complete ban on production, import and export of products with mercury by 2020.
The minister’s letter calls for the use of LED lighting or high efficient lighting instead of florescent, mercury, quartz or incandescent lighting. The ministry also requested that this type of lighting be excluded from those items permitted to be imported.
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Diario Libre
8 March 2018
