Ozone officers meet in Dominica

Dominica: Ozone officers from the English-speaking Caribbean and Haiti are meeting in Dominica over the next three days to further strategise in the regional effort to eliminate Ozone depleting substances, the Dominica News Online reported.
Addressing that meeting on Tuesday, Dominica’s Minister for the Environment, Kenneth Darroux, said while his country does not produce such substances, it still has an important role to play in helping preserve the Ozone layer.
He said that approach was important because “we small island developing states are particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of ozone depletion”, and the many health and other problems associated with this.
Dr. Darroux later told Dominica News Online that Dominica has been successful in phasing out chloro-fluoro carbons – CFCs, and was also tackling hydro-fluoro carbons (HFCs), the DNO report said.
“We don’t produce them, we don’t manufacture them but we use them in refrigerating … we don’t import refrigeration and air condition units which use CFCs,” the minister said.
Dr. Darroux said there were “fridges” in households which use hydro-fluoro carbons, but that the government was trying to phase these out as well. He says a key strategy focuses on the customs area.
“We’ve worked with the customs, the police, and everybody else to ensure that when those units come in they are properly inspected to make sure that they meet the necessary compliance,” he said.
The Dominica-convened meeting of Ozone officers has the support of several agencies and organisations including the Ozone Secretariat, the Multilateral Fund and the United Nations Environmental Programme – UNEP, the DNO reported.