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PRESS RELEASE

Governments finalize Persistent Organic Pollutants treaty

            Johannesburg, 10 December 2000 – Diplomats from 122 countries have finalized the text of a legally binding treaty that will require governments to minimize and eliminate some of the most toxic chemicals ever created.

“Persistent organic pollutants threaten the health and well-being of humans and wildlife in every region of the world,” said John Buccini, the Canadian government official who chaired the talks. “This new treaty will protect present and future generations from the cancers, birth defects, and other tragedies caused by POPs.”

Executive Director Klaus Töpfer of the United Nations Environment Programme, which organized the negotiations, applauded the strong international regime that has been established for promoting global action on POPs.

“This is a sound and effective treaty that can be updated and expanded over the coming decades to maintain the best possible protection against POPs,” he said.

The treaty sets out control measures covering the production, import, export, disposal, and use of POPs. Governments are to promote the best available technologies and practices for replacing existing POPs while preventing the development of new POPs. They will draw up national legislation and develop action plans for carrying out their commitments.

The control measures will apply to an initial list of 12 chemicals. A POPs Review Committee will consider additional candidates for the POPs list on a regular basis. This will ensure that the treaty remains dynamic and responsive to new scientific findings.

A financial “mechanism” will help developing countries and countries with economies in transition meet their obligations to minimize and eliminate POPs. “New and additional” funding and technical assistance will be provided.

Most of the 12 chemicals are subject to an immediate ban. However, a health-related exemption has been granted for DDT, which is still needed in many countries to control malarial mosquitoes. This will permit governments to protect their citizens from malaria – a major killer in many tropical regions – until they are able to replace DDT with chemical and non-chemical alternatives that are cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

Similarly, in the case of PCBs, which have been widely used in electrical transformers and other equipment, governments may maintain existing equipment in a way that prevents leaks until 2025 to give them time to arrange for PCB-free replacements. Although PCBs are no longer produced, hundreds of thousands of tons are still in use in such equipment. In addition, a number of country-specific and time-limited exemptions have been agreed for other chemicals.

Governments agree to reduce releases of furans and dioxins, which are accidental by-products and thus more difficult to control, “with the goal of their continuing minimization and, where feasible, ultimate elimination”.

Other national measures required under the treaty relate to reporting, research, development, monitoring, public information and education.

The meeting in Johannesburg was the fifth and final POPs negotiating session and was attended by some 600 participants. The treaty will be formally adopted and signed by ministers and other plenipotentiaries at a Diplomatic Conference in Stockholm on 22 – 23 May 2001. Governments must then ratify, and when 50 have done so the treaty will enter into force; this process normally takes several years.

            Of all the pollutants released into the environment every year by human activity, POPs are among the most dangerous. They are highly toxic, causing an array of adverse effects, notably death, disease, and birth defects, among humans and animals. Specific effects can include cancer, allergies and hypersensitivity, damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, reproductive disorders, and disruption of the immune system.

These highly stable compounds can last for years or decades before breaking down. They circulate globally through a process known as the "grasshopper effect". POPs released in one part of the world can, through a repeated (and often seasonal) process of evaporation, deposit, evaporation, deposit, be transported through the atmosphere to regions far away from the original source.

In addition, POPs concentrate in living organisms through another process called bioaccumulation. Though not soluble in water, POPs are readily absorbed in fatty tissue, where concentrations can become magnified by up to 70,000 times the background levels. Fish, predatory birds, mammals, and humans are high up the food chain and so absorb the greatest concentrations. When they travel, the POPs travel with them. As a result of these two processes, POPs can be found in people and animals living in regions such as the Arctic, thousands of kilometers from any major POPs source.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to most POPs. The problem is that high costs, a lack of public awareness, and the absence of appropriate infrastructure and technology often prevent their adoption. Solutions must be tailored to the specific properties and uses of each chemical, as well as to each country's climatic and socio-economic conditions.

            The 12 initial POPs include eight pesticides (aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, and toxaphene), two industrial chemicals (PCBs and hexachlorobenzene, which is also a pesticide), and two unwanted by-products of combustion and industrial processes (dioxins and furans).

Note to journalists: For more information, please contact Michael Williams in Johannesburg (GMT + 2 hours) on Sunday until 13h at +27-11-508-1559 and during the afternoon at +41-79-409-1528, or in Geneva from Tuesday a.m. at +41-22-917-8242, or Michael.williams@unep.ch. See also www.chem.unep.ch/pops/