PHILIPSBURG:--- With more families across St. Maarten facing serious health battles, including a troubling rise in cancer diagnoses, concerns over food safety growing louder, residents are increasingly asking: What are we putting into our bodies? And are we doing enough to protect our health?
In response to these urgent questions, Members of Parliament Egbert Doran and Francisco Lacroes met today with Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor (VSA) Richinel Brug and his team. Their goal is to come together and chart a stronger, more protective path forward in food safety.
This was no ordinary meeting. It was a frank, solutions-focused conversation rooted in the real anxieties and frustrations people are voicing, especially as more households deal with cancer and other chronic illnesses that many believe could be linked, in part, to what is found in our foods. Another point raised by MP Doran was the testing of drinking water imported from outside the island, which isn’t subject to testing, unlike the local water production.
A major hurdle quickly emerged: St. Maarten currently has a limited number of health inspectors responsible for overseeing all imported goods, including food items. The scale of the job is staggering, and it's clear that this alone cannot ensure safety for an entire island. One potential solution raised during the meeting was to redirect fines collected from the seizure of unsafe products toward hiring additional inspectors. However, under current law, that option isn't yet viable, highlighting the need for updated legislation.
Both MPs and Minister Brug agreed that reforming outdated food safety laws is now a top priority. The meeting laid the groundwork for follow-up sessions between the MPs and the Minister, where legal and expert professionals will be brought in to help translate ideas into realistic, enforceable rules. These future laws must reflect the specific challenges faced by St. Maarten and prioritize the health of its people over outdated processes.
The discussion also stressed the need for deeper cooperation with French St. Martin, since unsafe or questionable products often cross borders with little resistance. Shared enforcement efforts and common food standards were discussed as key ways to ensure that no part of the island becomes a backdoor for harmful imports.
Among other ideas floated were tightening restrictions on food additives, placing new controls on unhealthy or high-risk imports, and improving the way inspections are conducted, given existing resource limitations.
While challenges remain, today’s meeting offered something increasingly rare: a sense of hope, unity, and urgency. It showed that community concerns are not falling on deaf ears and that leaders are ready to act. With the health of the island at stake, and cancer touching more families each year, there is no room for delay.
Food safety isn’t just about regulations it’s about people’s lives, their well-being, and their right to trust what’s on their plate. The message from today’s meeting was clear: change is not only possible it’s necessary. And it’s coming.