Concern Over Persistent Organic Pollutants
By Dilip Singh Mutum
This article appeared in the September
2000 issue of South Review (Vol1:6, p. 26.)
Kuala Lumpur: Concern over the international risks to environment and public health by Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) has provided an impetus for a legally binding global treaty. POPs are toxic chemicals, which last for a long time in the environment and travel long distances far from the source of emission or release. These are the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, and toxaphene; industrial chemicals: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene; and the combustion by-products: dioxins and furans. These chemicals remain in the environment for a long time and are accumulated in the fatty tissues of living organisms.
These chemicals move up the food chain, magnifying as they go and ultimately affect human beings. In fact, before it was banned in the United States in 1973, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane or DDT as it is commonly known, was the primary factor associated with the fall in numbers of various bird species.
Some of the important milestones in the development of a global treaty to reduce and eliminate POPs include:
* A series of negotiations initiated in 1995 on a POPs protocol by the executive body for the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, with the final protocol in June 1998.
* Various decisions adopted by the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1995 (Decision 18/31 and 18/32).
* Resolution to reduce persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic pollutants to the marine environment by the year 2005, in June 1995 by the parties to the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution.
* Commitment to move against POPs included in declaration reached in 1995 by the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Programme of Action for Protecting Marine Environment from Land-based Activities.
* A legally binding international treaty, recommended to the UNEP Governing Council and World Health Assembly by IFCS after expert meetings in Manila, in June 1996.
* Decision 19/13C adopted by UNEP Governing Council in February 1997, endorsing IFCS conclusions and recommendations. A request was made by UNEP to convene an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding instrument for implementing action, beginning with 12 specified POPs, together with scientific criteria and a procedure for identifying additional pollutants as candidates for inclusion.
* IFCS recommendations endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 1997 in a resolution, which included calling on member states to act to reduce reliance on insecticides for control of vector-borne diseases, and requesting the WHO to support research on integrated approaches against vector-borne diseases.
* First session of the INC held in Montreal, Canada, in 1998 and the second in Nairobi and Kenya in January 1999.
* Third round of talks held in Geneva Sept, 6-11, 1999. A total of 115 countries took part, working with 17 intergovernmental and 72 non-governmental organizations, for a total of more than 420 participants.
* The fourth round of negotiations on a global treaty on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) concluded on March, 25, 2000 in Bonn, Germany. A total of 317 delegates from 121 countries participated, working with 11 UN bodies and specialised agencies, seven intergovernmental organisations, and 81 non-governmental organisations and other bodies.
During the last round, negotiators favoured retaining the goal of ultimate elimination of production and use of all 10 intentionally produced persistent organic pollutants in the mandate and the industrial chemicals and minimise unwanted by-products ¾ dioxins and furans. Governments reaffirmed eventual elimination as the goal of the Convention, including exemptions for use of DDT in controlling malaria mosquitoes and for existing uses of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), subject to periodic review. Intensive discussions also laid the basis for deciding on technical and financial assistance at the last round of negotiations, to be held from December, 4-9, 2000 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
According to Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director, "Negotiators made important progress on a number of key issues. They are now in a good position to reach agreement on the treaty by the end of 2000, the deadline in the mandate from the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme."
"In Bonn, delegates made gains in addressing the
'what' and 'how' of technology issues. In South Africa, they can take up
proposals for accessing and making better use of technology assistance,"
Mr. Toepfer added.
Developing countries can no longer afford to ignore the dangers posed by POPs. Highly debated, is the use of the deadly pesticide DDT which is used mainly to fight malaria. A report released by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 1998, noted that that DDT "is linked to irreparable harm in animals and humans such as cancer, reduced lactation, and reproductive problems."
During the Bonn round, negotiators continued to favour proposals eliminating production and use of DDT, but including a public health exemption as countries adopt alternative chemical and non-chemical strategies and reduce reliance on DDT. The reason that POPs have aroused international attention is the realisation that the dangers are not restricted to single nations but is a global problem, which can be solved only when the North and the South get together.