AMMAN - HRH Prince Hassan on Tuesday called for developing monitoring systems and emergency plans at the national, regional and international levels for protecting people from biological hazards.
In an address at the opening session of the 3rd Biosafety and Biosecurity International Conference, he stressed the need to subject the storage of hazardous materials and the regular inspection of installations to rigorous international standards.
Noting that high-risk chemical plants should not be located in densely populated areas, the Prince said governments should take strict measures to keep residential districts away from the risk zones around industrial plants.
"The massive progress made in biotechnology and the relocation of complex research and development programmes to the emerging world markets adds to the potential for untoward events, thereby creating an imperative to work collectively," he pointed out.
Measures should be taken to ensure that full access to information concerning chemical plants is available to all interested parties, including local authorities and populations living in areas surrounding industrial plants, the Prince noted.
More than 200 experts and scientists in biosafety and biosecurity convened at the event, which is organised by El Hassan Science City (EHSC) and the International Council for the Life Sciences (ICLS) to set strategies that protect societies in the Middle East and North Africa from biological contamination.
Titled "Healthier and More Secure Communities in the Middle East and North Africa", the three-day conference aims at identifying and mitigating the biological risks threatening the region's communities through developing comprehensive biosafety and biosecurity strategies underpinned by legislative, human and physical infrastructure in order to build healthier and more secure communities capable of facing upcoming challenges, according to organisers.
HRH Princess Sumaya, president of EHSC and the Royal Scientific Society, yesterday underscored the importance of cooperation with the ICLS.
"At El Hassan Science City, we are delighted to host a conference with a mission that so closely echoes our own. Our vision is to be a beacon of leadership for scientific innovation in the Middle East and our goal is to catalyse socially oriented economic progress for meaningful improvement in peoples' lives," she said.
The participants in the conference, held at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology, are discussing the risks behind using and over-exploiting biotechnology to come up with new strategies and determine the right methodologies to deal with biological threats.
They will also discuss capacity building, policy and legal issues, environmental issues threatening public safety, animal and plant life as well as national biosafety preparedness and planning.
© Jordan Times 2011
