Theme Institutional Strengthening • Enforcement • Assistance to Laboratories

Accurate, reliable scientific information is necessary to assure that products in trade meet established standards to protect humans, animals and plants from diseases, pests, or contaminants.  Laboratories, working with environmental health, law enforcement, agriculture and veterinary officials, hospitals and other appropriate agencies, must produce accurate and reliable data to support environmental decisions, monitoring, investigations and implementation of appropriate preventative or corrective measures. 

The capacity of laboratories to produce valid, timely data contributes to all Theme A priorities:

• Laws & Policies for Wastewater, Solid Waste, Chemical & Hazardous Substances and Air Quality Management.  Regulations, norms, standards and guidelines must be based on evidence and measurement of contaminants existing in the region’s air, water and soil. 

• Effective Enforcement of Laws & Policies.  To enforce regulations and to encourage compliance with standards and guidelines, officials must know the composition and levels of substances released by industry, agriculture, public services and the general public which may cause contamination.  Without hard evidence, investigation and prosecution of violations cannot be fair nor command the confidence of the parties or the public.

• Public Participation. To play a part in decision-making, the public must have access to technical information—the standards and measurements—which are the bases of environmental actions.  To contribute to effective enforcement of environmental decisions, individuals, businesses and other organizations which affect or are affected by environmental conditions must have confidence in the integrity of the base information and its application in particular situations.

For these reasons, and more, laboratories play a major role in establishing and enforcing environmental standards and in creating confidence in the fair administration of the law.

To assist laboratories to build capacity to fulfill their important role in meeting CAFTA-DR obligations, our Program...

• Evaluates laboratories in the region to assess their strengths and needs, identify priority issues and facilitate mutual support and action, as in sharing of sampling, traceability and inter-laboratory tests

• Works with public and private sector scientists at national laboratories to facilitate harmonization of procedures, specialization and mutual reference
  
  
• Provides training and materials to strengthen laboratories’  technical capacity