HAZARDOUS chemicals kill or cause illness in thousands of people each year. Developing countries in particular often become conduits for hazardous substances that are banned elsewhere. It is good then that the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC) comes into force on 24 February. This requires an exporting country to notify an importing country if one of its manufacturers wants to export specific hazardous materials. The importing country then has the option to accept, refuse, or to impose conditions on import.
The aim is to empower importing countries 鈥� in particular developing nations that may not know what chemicals are being used within their borders or the risks associated with them. The convention also covers the exchange of information among signatories about such chemicals. This has in fact been in operation on an interim basis since 1998.
Together with the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Basle Convention of the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes, the PIC convention adds to the tool kit for managing hazardous chemicals throughout their life cycle.
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MANY MPs are doubtful about the identity card scheme proposed recently by the home secretary, David Blunkett. Simon Davies of the London School of Economics reinforced my disquiet. He told this magazine that the proposed system would not stop people getting extra cards under different names (快猫短视频, 22 November 2003, p 13). I asked Beverley Hughes, the Home Office minister with responsibility for citizenship and immigration, for her views. She said that there will be a National Identity Register of basic personal information. The NIR will be a single, reliable record of a person鈥檚 basic ID details, such as name, address and date of birth, with checks made against passport, driving licence and immigration records, for example. The NIR will link each record to a 鈥渂iometric鈥� measure 鈥� an iris or finger scan 鈥� unique to that person, creating a central biometric database.
The minister added that the database will make it impossible to register multiple identities or obtain multiple ID cards. It will also ensure that an individual鈥檚 biometrics can be registered only once, and thus stop anyone using someone else鈥檚 card or stealing another鈥檚 identity.
The NIR database will not be linked to other information held by government departments, such as medical or tax records. Legislation will balance individual privacy against official access to identity card information, such as police access for investigation of serious crime, said the minister.
So be it, but I am deeply sceptical of the scheme. What is more, many police officers tell me they are unconvinced. They say that identity cards will create extra problems in catching those criminals whom society most wants caught. And certainly, there will be a considerable cost to the taxpayer.
