The Ministry for Environment and border control officers are concerned about the importation of fake products disguised as non – ozone depleting substances.

Officers detected imported illegal HCFC refrigeration gas which had a non-ODS sticker.

Vika Rogers from the National Ozone Unit says the dangerous thing about this that improper labeling may in some cases cause explosion.

“We have detected that the gas comes in with a different gas number but when we use our multi-identification detector it reads that it’s R22 or HCFC but the label is different so it’s being smuggled into the country.”

Permanent secretary for Environment Samuela Saumatua said had fake product not been detected earlier, it would have caused drastic and negative impacts on our economy.

HCFC is refrigeration gas that is being phased out by government in compliance with the Montreal Protocol.

Fiji is required to adopt a new HCFC baseline from January 1st 2015 to 2030 where the substance is to be cleaned out of the economy.

The Ministry says it is working closely together with border control officers to curb the growing number of fake imports.

The issue was discussed at the 8th Pacific Island Countries ODS Officers Network meeting in Nadi.