International treaties

TSCA also addresses the problem of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and chlorinated fluorocarbons (CECs). EPA has developed regulations on the cleanup, handling, and disposal of PCBs. The manufacture and use of CECs has been banned for all but essential uses, in accordance with the Montreal Agreement, an international treaty on worldwide use of CECs. 

The Montreal Protocol of July 1987 resulted in an international treaty in which the industrialized nations agreed to halt the production of most ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons by the year 2000. This deadline was hastily changed to 1996, in February 1992, after a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite and high-altitude sampling aircraft found levels of chlorine monoxide over North America that were 5i % greater than that measured over Antarctica. 

In 1987 an international treaty was signed in Montreal to cut back on the use of CFCs. Production of Freon in the United States ended in 1996. It has been replaced in automobile air conditioners by a related compound with no chlorine atoms, C2H2F4 ... 

There are several international treaties and agreements administrated by the United Nations which limit specific chemicals. 

Vrijhof, H. 1985. Organotin compounds and international treaties on the pollution of water by dangerous substances black or grey list substances. Sci. Total Environ. 43 221-231. 

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an international treaty that bans the use of chemical weapons and aims to eliminate chemical weapons, everywhere in the world, forever. 

Proposals for the EU to press for nine hazardous substances to be banned or severely restricted under two international treaties on persistent organic pollutants were issued by the European Commission in August. The substances include polychlorinated naphthalenes and the flame retardant pentabromodiphenyl ether, concentrations of which were recently found to be rising in the Arctic environment and wildlife. 

Regulates the discharge of oil, noxious liquid substances, and garbage generated during the normal operations of vessels, and implements the international treaty on prevention of pollution by ships, known as MARPOL, and prohibits ships from discharging plastic wastes... 

The international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, resulting in the phasing out of CFCs and other synthetic... 

In 2001, more than 90 countries signed an international treaty, the Stockholm Convention, agreeing to reduce or eliminate the production, use and release of 12 POPs. Both China and the... 

The U.S. Army is in the process of destroying the country s stockpile of aging chemical weapons, stored at eight locations in the continental United States and on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The deadline for completing the destruction of these weapons, as specified by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) international treaty, is April 29, 2007. Originally, the Army selected incineration as the preferred baseline destruction technology, and it currently operates two incineration facilities—one on Johnston Atoll and one at the Deseret Chemical Depot near Tooele, Utah. The Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) completed destruction of the stockpile on Johnston Island in late 2000, and closure of the... 

On February 27, 2005, an International Treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, entered into force with the recognition that tobacco products are addictive and with encouragement for further research to guide implementation of the treaty. Specifically, the treaty recognized that... 

The procedure for obtaining a patent is typically started by filing a national patent application in a patent office of a country which is party to the Paris Convention (an international treaty agreeing certain reciprocal patent rights). This application can provide a so-called priority date for the invention disclosed in this priority application such that the patentability of the invention is assessed as of that date. This priority date can given to further patent applications filed in other Paris Convention territories provided that these further patent applications are filed within 12 months of the first priority application. A patent application must be filed before any public disclosure of the invention since, in most territories, public disclosures before the priority date can be used to attack the novelty and non-obviousness of an invention described in a patent application. 

A patent has a limited territorial effect and so it is desirable to seek patent protection in those territories where any product is to be made or sold and any process used. Various international treaties and conventions exist which facilitate the acquisition of patent protection in many countries (see below). 

Normative work to assist States in the ratification and implementation of the international treaties, the development of domestic legislation on drugs, crime and terrorism, and the provision of secretariat and substantive services to the treaty-based and governing bodies and... 

Making decisions about risks to health and the environment is difficult for Congress, for regulatory agency administrators, for officials of industry, and for the public that awaits the decisions. Questions about science, economics, trade-offs, and uncertainty seldom have clear-cut answers. Many countries, many international treaties, and many environmental organizations have offered the precautionary principle as a shibboleth, a near-magic principle, to guide decisions about risks. 

The United States stopped using Agent Orange in Vietnam in 1970—eight years before 2,4,5-T was taken off the market in this country—because of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong charges that herbicides were a form of chemical warfare forbidden by international treaty and claims from Vietnamese, Americans, and... 

Narcotics abuse was not, of course, confined to the United States. In 1909 the International Opium Commission had its first meeting. Two years later an international treaty banned the distribution of narcotics except under medical supervision. 

The United States has entered into numerous bilateral or multilateral agreements with particular countries, seeking cooperation in drug eradication and interdiction efforts. Additionally, there are several important international treaties that have been signed by the United States and many other nations. 

Except where control is required by United States obligations under an international treaty, convention, or protocol, in effect on October 27, 1970, and except in the case of an immediate precursor, a drug or other substance may not be placed in any schedule unless the findings required for such schedule are made with respect to such drug or other substance. The findings required for each of the schedules are as follows ... 

To protect life from ultraviolet radiation, international treaties now ban or phase out chlorofluorocarbons, and there is an effort to find safe substitutes. 

The fate of POPs such as PCNs in the environment is governed by their physical chemical properties. The extent to which POPs transform or degrade in the environment, the rate at which they exchange between environmental compartments, and the degree to which they travel once released are important considerations in assessment processes under national laws and international treaties. The few studies in this area regarding PCNs are summarized below. 

In the 1980s, scientists studying the atmosphere over Antarctica shocked the world by announcing they had found a "hole" in the ozone layer over that continent. The startling discovery led to an international treaty called the Montreal Protocol that banned the use of CFCs in most products. Nearly all of the world s countries have signed the treaty, leading to a sharp decrease in the amount of ozone-eating CFCs in the atmosphere. 

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