July 17, 1998
Global Meeting on Persistent Organic Pollutants
Global representatives from 92 countries concluded their
first round of talks on how to reduce and eliminate worldwide
use and emissions of persistent organic pollutants (POPs),
highly toxic chemicals such as DDT and dioxins that remain in
the environment for years. The meeting, held in Montreal,
June 29 to July 3, 1998, focused on a list of 12 persistent
chemicals, including nine pesticides. Eight of these nine
pesticides are on Pesticide Action Network's Dirty Dozen
list: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor,
hexachlorobenzene, and toxaphene. The remaining chemicals on
the list are dioxins, furans, mirex and PCBs.
"These substances travel readily across international borders
to even the most remote region, making this a global problem
that requires a global solution,S said Klaus Toepfer,
executive director of the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP), which sponsored the meetings. A growing body of
scientific evidence indicates that exposure to very low doses
of certain POPs can lead to cancer, damage to the central and
peripheral nervous systems, diseases of the immune system,
reproductive disorders and interference with normal infant
and child development. POPs can travel through the atmosphere
thousands of miles from their source. In addition, these
substances concentrate in living organisms and are found in
people and animals worldwide.
The International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN), an
international coalition of more than 75 public interest
groups including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) groups from
Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America, Greenpeace,
Physicians for Social Responsibility and World Wildlife Fund,
also attended the negotiations. IPEN groups called POPs "a
global biological time-bomb as serious as nuclear weapons"
and offered their qualified support for the effort that
governments had made during the first round of negotiations
in Montreal. "The international treaty process that began
June 29 will be either a charade or an historic achievement,
depending on what the governments of the world do over the
next two years," said Claudia Saladin, an attorney with the
Center for International Environmental Law in Washington,
D.C.
IPEN also called for strong recognition that North-South
cooperation would be essential for a meaningful treaty. "The
existing burden of these chemicals from industries in
developed countries, together with the burden from rapidly
growing industries in southern countries, will in large part
determine the chemical fate of the earth," said Eugene
Cairncross, a representative of the West Cape Branch of the
Environmental Justice Networking Forum in Capetown, South
Africa. "Without meaningful agreement on sharing resources
and technology transfer, the practical reality is that body
burdens of these chemicals will continue to threaten maternal
and child health around the world."
Known officially as the first session of the
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for an International
Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International
Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants, the meeting
gave the UNEP secretariat a mandate to prepare a new draft
outlining the substantive articles that could be contained in
the future convention. Once accepted, this outline will be
used for drafting the actual text of the agreement -- final
negotiations are expected to conclude by the year 2000. The
second round of talks is tentatively scheduled for February
8-12, 1999.
Together with financial and technical resources, expansion of
the POPs list beyond the initial 12 chemicals was a topic of
much attention. To deal with this issue, the meeting
established a Criteria Expert Group (CEG) to develop science-
based criteria and a procedure for identifying additional
POPs as candidates for future international action. The fist
of the CEG's anticipated three meetings is planned for late
October 1998, most likely in Bangkok, Thailand.
Sources: Environmental News Network, June 24, 1998; UNEP
Press Release, "POPs Treaty Talks Reveal Broad Consensus on
Need for Action," July 3, 1998; IPEN Press Release, July 6,
1998.
Contact: PANNA.
======================================================
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, California 94102
Phone (415) 981-1771
Fax (415) 981-1991
Email: panna@panna.org
web site www.panna.org/panna/
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