“Over 10,000 small-scale welders in Sri Lanka have benefitted from a UNIDO project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) enlightenment campaign on the dangers of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a chemical use in the welding industry.
UNIDO project manager, Carmela Centeno, Head of the Responsible Materials and Chemicals Management Unit, who disclosed this, said that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are harmful to the environment and human health and have been linked to cancer, skin and eye problems, and developmental disorders in children.
” Although they are no longer allowed to be produced, PCBs can still be found across the world. In Sri Lanka, people who work closely with electrical transformers are most likely to be affected by this pollutant.
According to previous studies, around 50 – 60 percent of welding plants tested in selected areas were contaminated. Often, the cooling oil used in plants in small-scale welding industries contains PCBs and the risk of exposure spreads further to the public, including the families of welders and their customers.”
The innovative awareness-raising campaign led by the project’s main partner, People to People Volunteers (PTPV) also included the distribution of brochures in Sinhala and Tamil, street theatre, and radio and press campaigns.
“Welding professionals were reluctant to attend awareness workshops outside their work area and it was a challenge to engage them in the workshops. The mobile unit was an important solution to this,” said PTPV’s Anuradha Prabath.