Seminar 6

March 13, 2018

T.I.P. Casal Campus

REFLECTION

On March 13, 2018 the practicum class held a seminar titled “Let’s Talk about Tox: A
Seminar on toxic chemicals and hazardous waste management”. The practicum class invited
speakers from DOST, and DENR-EMB. The goal of the seminar is to enlighten the students about
the toxic chemicals and its proper waste management. The speaker, Dr. Emelda A. Ongo from
Department of Science and Technology, discussed about the increasing problem of toxic wastes
which may be due to inflating number of trasnational companies such as the semiconductor industry
which generates waste that may pose a risk in health and in the environment. As an engineering
student we are ought to minimize the generated toxic wastes by the industry in order to lessen the
risk in health and in the environment. The DENR-EMB is the branch of DENR that makes the policies
in toxic waste management. They oversee the industrial planning process of the companies to ensure
that there will be proper handling in waste management.
Our last speaker, Engr. Elaine Jane Ilagan talks about the “Toxic Waste and its Effect on
Human Health and the Environment”. Engr. Ilagan discussed about the effects of toxic wastes in
the human health and environment and how certain hazardous materials make way onto the
human system and environment. A material may be very toxic, but not hazardous. Toxic chemicals
are the substance that can be poisonous or cause health effects. They don’t break down easily in
the environment, they can build up tissues of small organisms, they can move up through the food
chain. Like Persistent Organic pollutants that builds up for a very long time inside the body.

The seminar gave us engineering students a lot of insight about toxic waste handling and
how it affects the human health and environment if not taken seriously. This serves as an eye
opener to the problems we should focused on as an engineer and should be able to provide a
solution for this kind of problems in the industry to minimize the effects of toxic wastes.

Faz, John Leonard B.

Faz, John Leonard B.