RESEARCH WORKS

IN
GED 102_ MATHEMATHICS IN A MODERN WORLD

STATISTICAL FINDINGS
IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
BUREAU

GROUP 2
ASERON, JUNY R.
FAJARITO, GUENIVERE F.
MALABANAN, CHRISTINE M.
ABSTRACT

Few environmental compounds have generated as much interest and controversy

within the scientific community and in lay public as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-
dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs). Their ubiquitous
presence in the environment and the risk of accidental exposure has raised concern
over a possible threat of PCDDs or PCDFs to human health. These compounds have
been identified in almost all environmental compartments and humans

The main pathway for dioxins to enter the environment is via combustion
processes. Incineration is of special importance since PCDD/PCDF are directly
released to the atmosphere from either stationary sources such as municipal,
hazardous and hospital waste incinerators, the combustion of sewage sludge, and
scrap metal recycling or diffuse sources like forest fires and cigarette smoking.

The aim of the Inventory was to identify and quantify sources of PCCD/PCDF in
the Philippines. Results of the Inventory will then be used to develop corresponding
actions plan to address and reduce these releases. The Inventory results indicate that
PCCD/PCDF releases are not just from one sector but cross across all the spheres of
our economy. Consequently, impact to public health and the environment are quite
significant. The challenge of mitigating these releases is daunting. However, with the
strong collaboration from the partner agencies and the rest of the stakeholders; we
believe that we can “overcome the challenges”. We have directed our Environmental
Management Bureau to undertake concrete actions to reduce, if not eliminate, these
releases.
The ultimate message of the National PCCD/PCDF Inventory in the Philippines
is that the protection of the environment and the public health is a shared
responsibility of all the Filipinos and that everyone must be proactive in addressing
the threats of these substances.
Table ES-2 summarizes the results of the Inventory together with the breakdown of
releases per Group and per vector.

In

terms of releases per vector, the results

showed significant releases to air and residue, contributing approximately 55 and 34
percent respectively. This is consistent with the releases per source group as the
majority of releases from Open Burning and Disposal/Landfill Processes are to air and
residue respectively. Releases to land followed these two vector releases with over
eight percent of the total releases, all of which came from the Open Burning Process.
Note that processes involved from open burning generate combustion ashes that are
released to land (rather than released to residue), since the ashes are usually disposed
on land and are typically not collected for further disposal. On the other hand, releases
to product and water were almost negligible compared to the other vectors.

Figure ES-1 graphically presents the breakdown of PCDD/PCDF releases per vector.
 As mentioned earlier, air emissions comprised over 55 percent of the total
releases. The bulk of these were attributed to the two categories under Group 6
(biomass burning and waste burning and accidental fires), which accounted for almost
87 percent of the total air emmisions as illustrated in Figure ES-2.

Note that source categories with low and high estimates (bars in the succeeding
figures) indicate that surveys were conducted for these categories but did not achieve
100 percent turnaround. A higher range of estimates indicate lower certainty levels
since a minor proportion of the necessary data was acquired; thus leading to low level
of confidence.
 Further analysis revealed that fire incidents related to improper solid waste
management (fire incidents in disposal sites and open burning of domestic waste) and
the practice of burning rice straw in the field after harvest were the biggest issues
related to PCDD/PCDF air emissions.

On the other hand, the majority (Figure ES-3) of the releases to residues were
attributed to Category 9a: Landfills, Waste Dumps, Landfill Mining and Excavation,
as this category contributed almost 91 percent of the overall residue releases. The high
releases were primarily due to the prevalence of waste dumps in the country that have
a relatively higher residue release factor compared to sanitary landfills.
For releases to
land
(Figure ES-4),
this was wholly
attributed to open burning processes. On the other hand, releases to product
predominantly (74 percent) came from composting, another solid waste management
practice.

Moreo
ver, similar
to air and
residue

releases, it was observed (Figure ES-5) that Bricks Production had the widest range of
PCDD/PCDF release estimates, highlighting the need for improvement in the
collection of activity rates for this category. However, releases from this category are
relatively low.

In terms of releases to water (Figure ES-6), open water dumping and

sewage/sewage treatment accounted for 93 percent of the total PCDD/PCDF releases
to water. However, overall release to water is negligible as compared to other vectors
 Based on the analysis of PCDD/PCDF releases per vector, it is observed that
recurring major contributors across the four vectors (excluding land) are related to
open burning processes and solid waste management practices. In terms of certainty
in activity rate statistics, 18 of the 42 categories included in this Inventory were
assigned a high certainty ranking, 14 were assigned as medium, while 10 were
assigned as low.
As for certainty in assigning classes, 27 of the 42 categories included in this Inventory
were given with high certainty ranking and 14 were assigned as medium. Only one
category was given with low certainty in class assignment and this is open water
dumping (Category 9c) since its classification was only based on NSO data for urban,
partially urban, and rural populations; which were assumed to correspond to Class 1,
Class 2, and Class 3 respectively.
The results of this Inventory were compared with the results of inventories of
seven Southeast Asian countries in terms of releases per capita. Figure ES-7 shows
that the Philippines estimate of 8.44 g TEQ/million people has the lowest overall
PCDD/PCDF releases among these Southeast Asian countries who have conducted
their national PCDD/PCDF inventories.

On a global context, the Philippines is likewise within the lowest values of

PCDD/PCDF releases.
With regards to vector distribution in the overall release, the results of this
Inventory were fairly consistent with Fiedler et al. distributions based on 67
inventories of various countries. The main vector of release was air corresponding to
45 percent of total releases, second highest was release in residues, while releases to
water only played a minor role. Similarly, in the Philippines, air was the main
contributor of releases comprising over 55 percent of the overall releases, followed by
residues, and with negligible releases to water.

In terms of importance of the source groups, Fiedler et al. established that open
burning of biomass or waste contributed the highest with 48 percent of the total
releases, followed by waste incineration (12 percent). Likewise, open burning of
wastes in the Philippines is the major contributor with over 56 percent of the overall
releases. However, the second highest contributors were landfills and waste dumps
which accounted for over 32 percent of the total PCDD/PCDF releases.
In summary, this Inventory establishes that the Philippines is among those
countries with low overall per capita releases. Of the estimated releases, only 10
source categories were assigned with low certainty. Nevertheless, future inventories
can still improve significantly in terms of enhancing the certainty levels in the data
collection of these categories, and for the other categories as well.

REFERENCE:

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://faspselib.denr.gov.ph/sites/default/files/Publication
%2520Files/DF%2520Final%2520Inventory%2520Report_EMB
%2520Cover.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGojZh58QmEU31X866HR3MYveSGJA