Stories from women working at two Samsung factories in Vietnam are documented in a report by the Hanoi-based Research Center for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED) and IPEN. The unprecedented study of 45 workers reports frequent fainting, dizziness, miscarriages, standing for eight-to-twelve hours, and alternating day/night shift work. This study is important because the lives and rights of workers in the electronics industry in Vietnam have been neglected in research and policy.
How to deal with toxic pollution: That was the main theme of the IPEN Central and Eastern Europe Regional Meeting that took place in Prague in October, 2017. The three-day conference of regional non-governmental organizations discussed a common future approach for Central and Eastern Europe. The meeting included an excursion to Spolana – a chlorine factory which is the biggest contemporary polluter of the Czech Republic. This trip showed how difficult, though not impossible, it may be to resolve historical environmental burdens.
Right in the historical centre of the Czech capital, environmental activists shared their experience regarding crucial issues of soil, water and air contamination from toxic waste. The conference brought together almost 30 participants representing fifteen European countries. The main goal of the meeting was to enhance the cooperation of environmental NGOs in the region, based on IPEN’s 2020 Global Plan and strategy. Maria Ekström Johansson, IPEN’s Operations and Finance Director, presented this strategy on the first day.
In continuation of his mercury-free dentistry campaign in Africa that started a week ago, President of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, Charlie Brown, an American, on Saturday October 28, 2017 left Yaounde, Cameroon for Lagos, Nigeria.
