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UNEP Urges Agreement on POPs Treaty
UNEP PRESS RELEASE
UNEP Chief Urges Agreement on Global Treaty to Protect Health,
Environment from Persistent Organic Pollutants
NAIROBI/GENEVA, 10 November 2000 - "Toxic and very long-lasting, persistent organic pollutants endanger the well-being of our planet and all living beings", said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). "The global treaty
approaching completion in December is the necessary global defence against these poisons."
"Only decades ago, most of the 12 POPs targeted for international action under the treaty being negotiated did not exist, and now they are in the air, water, soil around the planet and in us all, and they last for generations", Mr. Toepfer said. "Countries are coming to the negotiating table in South
Africa to reach agreement for the sake of people living today and generations to come. I believe they will meet this challenge."
The 12 POPs pose a risk to human health and the environment, especially for children. A combination of pesticides, industrial chemicals and unwanted byproducts, these pollutants are toxic, last for a long time, and travel long distances to remote areas far from the source of release. They
accumulate in fatty tissue, becoming more concentrated higher in the food chain and with time. They present a special risk to children because they are conveyed through the placenta and in breastmilk, and can have a critical effect on the fetus and infant whose systems are at key stages of
development.In the Arctic, the indigenous diet of the Inuit people relies on such fatty foods as whale, seal and char, which are high in POPs such as dioxin-like compounds and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Inuit mothers typically have high levels in breastmilk, five times the levels in mothers in
industrialized countries.
Of the tens of thousands of obsolete pesticide stocks stored in Africa and throughout the developing world -- often in inadequate or even dangerous conditions -- approximately 30 per cent are POPs, preliminary estimates show.
An estimated 1.5 million tons of PCBs were produced commercially. They were used in electrical equipment, as coolants in transformers and dielectrics in capacitors, as well as in other items all over the globe. Although PCBs are no longer produced, an estimated 100,000 tons are in stocks awaiting final disposal, and hundreds of thousands of tons more are still in use and may need to be identified and disposed of. Aging electrical equipment that contain PCBs and has not been maintained is in
danger of leaking.
The stage is set for final agreement on a legally binding global treaty to reduce and/or eliminate the 12 priority POPs and to establish criteria and a procedure for identifying others as candidates for international action. Delegates from more than 120 countries are to meet 4-9 December 2000 in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the last of the five scheduled negotiating sessions, which began in Montreal and were continued in Nairobi, Geneva and Bonn.
They will focus on limitations on manufacture and use, national action plans, funding, technical assistance, exemptions for DDT for combating diseases like malaria, and stockpiles of obsolete or unwanted pesticides, among other provisions. Their deliberations respond to the mandate for a POPs treaty issued by the UNEP Governing Council in 1997. The mandated deadline is the year 2000.
The 12 POPs listed in the mandate consist of the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, and toxaphene; the industrial chemicals PCBs and hexachlorobenzene, which is also a pesticide; and the unwanted byproducts of combustion and industrial
processes dioxins and furans.
With agreement in December, the Diplomatic Conference to sign the treaty will take place in Stockholm in May 2001, followed by ratification and entry into force.
Note to Journalists: The meeting will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre, Maude Street, Sandton, located in Johannesburg. It is formally known as the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Official documents for INC-5 and other information on POPs are available on the POPs Homepage (www.chem.unep.ch/pops). The Homepage features an electronic Press Room, which provides access to
information and documents directly or via links the POPs Homepage. Included are key documents, the press accreditation form, local and hotel information, and meeting schedule.
Press conferences are scheduled for 13:15 on Monday, 4 December 2000, and 11:30 on Sunday, 10 December 2000, at the Sandton Convention Centre. The Sunday press conference will be followed by a
luncheon for press to provide opportunity for follow-up interviews. To facilitate planning, please let us know if you plan to attend.
UNEP News Release 2000/125