Distribution of Professional Certification Cards and Training Material on the Sister Isle

Our latest Professionally Certified Technician...first of many for 2020!

Congrats from the National Ozone Unit 

Trinidad and Tobago has a new National Cooling Strategy (NCSTT)

Trinidad and Tobago has a new National Cooling Strategy (NCSTT) which has been approved by the Cabinet.

Cooling is a critical element for the sustainability and development of the economy. It is required to ensure homes, offices, and cars are comfortable; industrial processes run safely and efficiently while ensuring societies have preserved foods and medicaments for consumption. Notwithstanding being identified as essential, cooling also has a significant adverse environmental impact, due to its contribution to global warming. The refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) sector (cooling sector) contributes to global warming both directly and indirectly. The demand for cooling is growing; thus, there is an urgent need to cut cooling related pollution and energy wastage.

The direct impact of cooling on the environment is due to the refrigerant emissions and depends on the global warming potential (GWP) of the refrigerant used, the refrigerant charge in the equipment and the leakage rates (annual and during maintenance and decommissioning) of the equipment. The cooling technology used for RAC mainly utilize synthetic refrigerants that can either deplete the ozone layer or have a high-GWP. Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants were introduced to replace their ozone-depleting counterparts but are greenhouse gases that can have a high-GWP. HFCs contribute to the increases in temperature currently experienced worldwide, and thus, the demand for cooling also increases.  

To ensure that Trinidad and Tobago is prepared for the increased demand for cooling and ready to mitigate the identified threats to the environment and sustainability, the National Cooling Strategy of Trinidad and Tobago (NCSTT) has been developed. The NCSTT will support sustainable, energy-efficient, low-GWP cooling in Trinidad and Tobago, enhancing the phase-out and phase down targets under the Montreal Protocol and its recent Kigali Amendment.  

The drafting of the NCSTT was guided using a multisectoral consultative approach which spanned a period of over eighteen (18) months. Several key stakeholders involved in the cooling industry, and well as other sectors, in particular as it relates to energy efficiency and alternative refrigerants were consulted across Trinidad and Tobago. These stakeholders included, all Government Ministries, the Environmental Management Authority; the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards; the National Training Agency; training institutions in the RAC Sector such as the Metal Industries Limited, the National Energy Skills Center, and the School of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning; research entities such as the University of the West Indies; and Non-Governmental Organizations such as the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Industry Association and the Refrigerant Recovery and Recycling Association. The NCS was circulated to all professionally certified RAC technicians. Comments received were used to finalize the document, under the guidance of the Cabinet Appointed National Coordinating Committee to Guide the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol.

The development of the NCSTT was facilitated through funding provided by the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme administered through the United Nations Development Programme.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w4meJjIf2HH_oV7PbR8R4XEy-2-l5dWh/view?usp=sharing_eil&ts=5e67d9ea

Did you know…. the ozone layer is the Earth’s sunscreen protecting humans from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation?

Did you also know that………?

• Without stratospheric ozone layer shielding the Earth, life on earth would be vulnerable to damage by the sun’s ultraviolet rays, threatening people, food production and ecosystems.
• Ozone-depleting substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in aerosols and cooling, among others, were damaging it, letting through more and more ultraviolet radiation.

Damage to the ozone layer increases the prevalence of skin cancer

• While limited exposure to the sun stimulates the body’s production of vitamin D, excessive solar irradiation causes skin cancer, including cutaneous malignant melanoma and the keratinocyte (non-melanoma) skin cancers, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, and contributes to the development of other rare skin cancers such as Merkel cell carcinoma.
• UV-B radiation also damages the immune systems and the body’s ability to heal and repair itself. By suppressing the efficiency of the immune systems, potentially cancerous tumors are able to take hold and spread.
• Lighter skin is more susceptible to skin cancers (malignant and non-melanoma). The highest incidences are in Australia, followed by New Zealand, Germany, and the Nordic countries.
• The annual health costs of skin cancers are staggering:
  • Australia
    1. Malignant melanoma: 272 million AUD (2010)
    2. Keratinocyte cancer: 512 million AUD (2010)
  • USA
    1. Malignant melanoma: estimated to increase from 457 million in 2011 to 1.6 billion USD (in 2030)
    2. Keratinocyte cancer: 4.8 billion USD (2007-2011)
  • Sweden around 39 million EUR (2011)
  • UK around 109 million GBP (2008)
  • South Africa around 14 million USD (2014-2015).

But there is good news…………The ozone layer is recovering

• On realizing that the ozone layer was being damaged, scientists and politicians came together and in 1987, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed.
• Since then, actions taken under the Montreal Protocol have led to a decrease in ozone-depleting substances and the start of the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer.
• Outside the polar regions, upper stratospheric ozone has increased by 1–3 per cent per decade since 2000.
• Northern hemisphere and mid-latitude ozone will return to 1980 values by the 2030s. The southern hemisphere will follow in the 2050s and the polar regions by the 2060s.

And the best news of all………. Protecting the ozone layer is good for your health!

• Without the Montreal Protocol, NASA predicts that by 2040, global ozone would have fallen so low, lighter-skinned people would have been sunburnt in about 10 minutes.
• Even though skin cancers are the most expensive cancer in many countries today (cost of malignant melanoma in the USA was around USD 457 million in 2011, projected to increase to USD 1.6 billion by 2030), the cases of skin cancer without the Montreal Protocol would have increased many times over.
• In fact, in the world avoided analysis, it has been estimated that 2 million cases of skin cancer would be avoided per year by 2030 due to the Montreal Protocol.
• Some quantitative estimates in the USA for those born between 1890 and 2100:
  • 283 million cases of skin cancer prevented, 8.3 million of which are melanoma cases
  • 1.6 million deaths from skin cancer prevented.

For more information on the ozone layer and the work of the Montreal Protocol check out the 20 Q&As on our website.

Source : https://ozone.unep.org/did-you-know-ozone-layer-earths-sunscreen-protecting-humans-suns-harmful-ultraviolet-radiation

Ozone Awareness at Hillview College

The promotion of ozone awareness continued at the family day and Green Market hosted by Hillview College.