What the Hell is PolyChlorinated Biphenyl?

Yesterday, i was invited by the World Bank to attend the launch and inception workshop of the Nigeria Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) Management Project.

Before i recieved an invite late last week, i have never heard about PCB and its tongue twisting full name. As i have been made to understand, PCBs were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids, for example in transformers, capacitors and electric motors. However, as far back as 1979, PCB production was banned by the United States Congress and also in 2001 by the Stockolm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which Cameroun, Nigeria, Uganda, Gambia, and Egypt among several other African Countries have signed and ratified.

The ban on PCBs was effected and grabbed international attention because it has been shown to cause cancer in animals and can also cause cancer among other diseases in humans.

With a $6.5million grant from the Global Environmental Facility and technical support from the World Bank, the Nigerian Government through the Ministry of Environment is poised to take a number of steps to raise awareness, educate stakeholders and map out strategies to phase out the use of PCBs in Nigeria.

This is set to be a long term project and i hope that the Government is committed to see this to its very end.