 Hello and welcome to HealthFocus, a production of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. I am Phenoneptian. Today we have with us the Chief Environmental Health Officer, Mr. Pakar Ragnanan, who will provide us with some information on one of the regulations which is part of the Public Health Act. This is the Offensive and Hazardous Treat Regulation. Welcome to the programme. Thank you very much for having me. Wonderful. One of the regulations under the amended Public Health Act is the Offensive and Hazardous Trade Regulation. Can you give us a brief overview and some great insight into this? Right. So in the 1978 regulation, under the Public Health Act of 1975, you had the Offensive Trade Regulations. These regulations were put in place to look at different types of trades and the impact on the environment, the impact on human health. So you had under the 1978 regulations, which at the time was called the Offensive Trade Regulations, issues with regards to the slaughter of animals. And we can well understand what are some of the issues associated with slaughtering of animals. You talk about the noise, you talk about the disposal of offal, you talk about blood, you talk about hygiene requirements and generally you talk about the upkeep of the slaughter places. So slaughtering of animals from part of the Offensive Trade Regulations. You had issues with regards to the storage of hides. Now hides is really the skin of certain animals that were being used to, they were being cured and used for leather purposes, making leather and that kind of thing. Then you had soap making. You had the issue of chicken pens and raring of chicken, open fires. These were some of the areas that were included in the regulation way back in 1978. Under the amended regulations in 2020 under the amended Public Health Act, what happened is there were more areas added to the Offensive Trade Regulations. But it was also revised from just offensive trade to include hazardous trade. So now the amended regulation is called the Offensive and Hazardous Trade Regulation. What are some of the areas that we are talking about that were included in this amendment? They include things like glue, packaging and processing, form making, bleach manufacturing and certain chemical manufacturing, cement and cement products, quarrying, spraying of automobiles, garages, automobile repairs. We looked at areas such as printing and printing houses. We looked at jewelry making and added to that was the issue of woodworking joinery and spraying of furniture. Then we had as well not just chicken raring but also pig farming. So pig farms were added to the new regulations. And then we had areas such as incinerators. We have recycled facilities, charcoal making and welding plants. These were some of the additional areas, additional trades that were brought in under these regulations. So why? When we look at these activities, not only are there many public complaints that have been lodged as a result of these activities. These activities impact the environment. They also impact human beings and we can go into more detail as far as that is concerned. But these regulations were intended to do two things. One is to ensure that there is a regulatory framework by which these activities can continue to take place because the law is not in any way shape or form trying to prevent these activities. But what it is trying to do is to say that the accident requirements you must meet in order to adequately perform these activities. So that is the first part. The other part is we need to look at occupational health and safety issues. What are the hazards that people who work in this trade? What are the hazards are they exposed to? What mechanisms are put in place to be able to deal with these hazards and to manage these hazards? I'd like you to hold on to that thought. We are definitely due for a break. We will be back in a moment. In a world where germs are widespread comes a group of superhero germbusters, the germaphos. We spend most of our time fighting germs every day of the week. After I play, I wash my hands. Before I eat, I wash my hands. After I play with my puppy, I wash my hands. I cover my sneezes with my forearm or elbow when I am in public. And I cover my cough to avoid spreading dangerous germs. We are the germaphos, germ-bursting superheroes. You can be too. Always wash your hands and cover your sneeze and cough. Let's stop the spread of menacing germs. We will be back germaphos with more powerful germs. And we will be waiting to prevent you from spreading. Welcome back. We will continue our discussion with Mr. Pakal Ragnaral who is speaking on the offensive and hazardous trade regulation which is part of the Public Health Act. Before we took the break, we were discussing in terms of why the trades were added to the amended regulation. And you mentioned that the second one was occupational safety. If you can go a little more in depth on this. So protecting the health of employees, people who are engaged in that trade, is extremely important. They are exposed to certain hazards. So let's take spring of automobiles for example. The pins that I use and the different chemicals that I use in terms of applying it to the vehicle, the body and so forth. Other mechanisms, one, to be able to protect the health and well-being of a staff, the person who is applying that. So we need to look at the occupational hazards. This is what the regulation is trying to do, to look at the occupational hazards and to see that there must be adequate protective measures implemented to be able to deal with these hazards. So once we talk about exposure to certain hazards, we need to look at now how we can prevent these hazards. And it would include invariably the use of certain PPEs. Importantly, not all face masks, for example, would protect you from dust. They are different dust size, particulate matter sizes. And therefore you need to get specialized masks. So you need to know the type of trade to be able to determine the type of PPE because sometimes we will be wearing a dust mask, but it's not effective in what it's supposed to do. So occupational hazards are very, very important. We are seeing today, more than ever, that we have increased number of persons who are dying from cancer and cancers have become more prevalent. Enough research has not gone into Saint Lucia to find out exactly what are the causes of some of these things. But there's no doubt that people are unduly exposed to certain hazards, including chemical hazards, that may impact their health. Then you have the issue of people who are living in close proximity to where these activities are taking place. Very often we find that there are people who would tell you that they cannot breathe at home. I recently spoke to a lady and she said to me, she's afraid of falling asleep at night because she doesn't know if the smoke that is coming into her house is going to choke her because she has serious asthmatic condition. She doesn't know she'll choke in her sleep and die. And so she's afraid to fall asleep. That is just one of many. We have many persons who are complaining. And I understand charcoal is a short term thing, but when it starts the process, there is a lot of smoke associated with it. And therefore what we have is people are complaining that not even at night they can sleep properly because of the constant smoke and the smell that actually remains in the room. It stays there for days and they find difficulty breathing. There are many people who are underlining medical conditions, including asthma and other respiratory conditions like COPD. And these persons are complaining all the time. Then there is the issue of being able to enjoy your home. And so you built an expensive house but you find you cannot go and see the sunset in your vorunda because you are constantly barraged by these hazards. The same thing happens not just for charcoal making, but we also have issues of some of the activities that we're talking about, such as the garages and the fumes that emanate from the operations of the garage. We have furniture making, not just the noise from the equipment, but the dust that is produced. And then when they spray this furniture, you also have aerosols that are affecting people. And depending as to where you are living, you are likely to get a heavy dose of these chemicals. Okay. So before we close, I just want you to tell Saint Lucien, for those persons who are in those amended trades, what is the new procedure? Do they require a license to actually practice those trades quickly? So the procedure, as was in 1978, there was need for a license to engage in certain trade that we were talking about. So the issue of a license is nothing new. A license has always been required for undertaking certain trades. These new areas have also come under a regulated area and there is a license for operating these trades. The license is stipulated in the law in such that if you do not want to engage in an activity for a full year and you want to do it for three months, you can pay the license for three months. It would be a quarter of the amount. Now a license under the new regulations is $100 a year. So if you want to engage in a trade for three months, the fee that you would pay for the license is just $25, not the $100. But if you want to go for six months, you pay half of the amount, which is $50. And if you want to go for the full year, then you pay the annual fee, which is $100. There has always been an inspection fee and that remains, so that has not changed. Thank you so much. Well, we have come to the end of the program for today. I want to thank you so much for giving us this valuable information as it relates to the offensive and hazardous trade regulation. Thank you so much. And thanks for having me. You have been watching Health Focus, a production of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. On behalf of the entire production team, I am Fernelle Netune. Thanks for watching. Until next time.