Environment chief warns against the use of lights with mercury

Santo Domingo.- Environment minister Francisco Dominguez today asked Customs to ban the import of fluorescent lamps and urged government agencies to buy LED lights instead.

The official also sent missives to the heads of Public Procurement and of Customs, noting that Dominican Republic signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury in the Oct. 2013, still pending ratification by Congress , to protect human health and the environment from emissions and anthropogenic releases of that heavy metal and its compounds.

“In accordance with the Agreement and with the national public procurement and sustainable procurement policies, we request as a first preventive measure that all State institutions be instructed for lighting purposes (motor routes, public spaces, etc.) to acquire lights of LED technology or more efficient instead of fluorescent lights, xenon vapor, mercury, quartz or incandescent “, says the letter sent to Procurement.

He also requests that the related items of their system be immediately excluded, “thus averting the possibility that said products which are manifestly harmful to the environment may be acquired.”