St. John’s, Antigua. November 27, 2025. The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment, successfully hosted a four-day training workshop on the Development of a Pesticide Monitoring Plan and the Collection and Shipping of Environmental Samples, held from November 24th–27th, 2025 in St. John’s, Antigua.
The workshop, funded by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) supports the regional objective of strengthening Member States’ capacity to detect, monitor, and respond to environmental threats to health. The training forms part of CARPHA’s broader mandate to build resilient, evidence-based environmental public health surveillance systems across the Caribbean.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Antigua and Barbuda Dr Terri-Ann Joseph – “Through collaboration across many sectors including agricultural and environmental health, we are able to detect early and reduce the negative impact these chemicals can have on human, animal and plant health.”
CARPHA Executive Director, Dr. Lisa Indar – “This workshop is key to ultimately reducing risks to human health: By understanding how pesticides move through the environment and accumulate, surveillance can help reduce human exposure through contaminated food, water, and air, which is linked to serious health problems”
Environmental health surveillance is a core function of CARPHA and is critical for identifying and managing threats posed by contaminants, including pesticides, in natural and built environments. Through this workshop, CARPHA’s Environmental Health and Sustainable Development Department (EHSD) provided structured training to officers of the Antigua and Barbuda Environmental Health Department and key national partners.
Over the four days, participants were trained to:
Once implemented, Antigua and Barbuda’s pesticide monitoring programme will support a more proactive and systematic approach to detecting pesticide contamination in water, soil, and other environmental media. This will translate into; enhanced early warning and detection of environmental hazards, strengthened capacity to prevent pesticide related illness, protection of vulnerable populations, safer agricultural practices that safeguard food security and improved public heath readiness in the face of natural climate-related hazards such as flooding which can increase pesticide runoff.
The strengthened system will also contribute to regional efforts to reduce exposure to environmental contaminants and improve environmental governance across CARPHA Member States.
Collaboration was central to the workshop’s success. Participants included representatives from the Environmental Health Unit, the Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Control Board, the Ministry of Agriculture, local laboratories, and other relevant agencies involved in environmental monitoring and public health protection.
As part of the post-workshop actions, CARPHA will provide a training package to the Ministry of Health Wellness and the Environment to support continued national capacity building, while also offering ongoing technical assistance for the implementation of the national pesticide monitoring programme. The Agency will also explore opportunities to integrate pesticide monitoring data into the CARPHA-developed DHIS2 Environmental Health Module to enhance and strengthen overall environmental health surveillance.
This initiative reaffirms CARPHA’s commitment to assisting Member States in building sustainable, resilient systems that protect the health of Caribbean people. The development of national pesticide monitoring capacity in Antigua and Barbuda represents a key advancement in environmental health surveillance—one that will benefit not only the country but also the wider region.
For more information on the extensive work of CARPHA, including that of the Environmental Health and Sustainable Development department, follow CARPHA on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram or visit the website: www.carpha.org.
View event coverage photos here.
