The Lagos State Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cleaning Practitioners Association of Nigeria to combat the proliferation of dangerous chemicals used in cleaning the environment.
Speaking at the signing of the MoU late Tuesday in Alausa, Ikeja, General Manager, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Dr Dolapo Fasawe, said with the MoU, CPAN has been accredited to partner with the government in cleaning and protecting the environment from chemicals.
He added that the partnership will also include checkmating the activities of quacks in the cleaning industry.
“The truth is that at times when we are trying to do good, we are causing harm. Some of these chemicals that we use to clean our environment are chemicals that cause global warming, and climate change if not used properly, if not constituted in a scientifically agreeable way.
“We have had incidences where people go and fumigate homes and children fall ill and animals start to die. There is pest control, there is rodent control, so this association, in dealing with them, I have come to understand that they are credible in protecting the environment,” she said.
“LASEPA has decided to accurately accredit this group of people called the Cleaning Practitioners Association of Nigeria and before you are accredited with us, we check your chemicals, we make sure you’re practising the best available practices. We’ll make sure, for example, you’re not putting snipers into homes and foods in the process of trying to kill rodents,” Fasawe added.
The National President, CPAN, Tunde Ayeye, commended LASEPA for supporting the association in its mission over the last three years.
Ayeye said the collaboration between CPAN and LASEPA would ensure that only safe and environmentally friendly chemicals were used in the delivery of commercial cleaning activities across Lagos State.