Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Developing World

Bondi Gevao Henry AlegricP, Foday M. Jaward and Mirza U. Beg Department of Environmental Science, Environment and Urban Development Division, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Safat, Kuwait Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Geography, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, Florida, USA 

These chemicals have received intense international attention in recent years because of their ubiquity, persistence, high bioaccumulation potential and harmful biological effects. Under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (see Chapter 1), 12 chlorinated chemical substances have been banned or severely restricted. These include dioxins and furans (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, PCDD/Fs), 

Persistent Organic Pollutants Edited by Stuart Harrad 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 

Exposure to POPs comes mainly from the consumption of food, especially meat, fish and dairy products. However, due to the ability of POPs to travel long-range, the POPs found in food do not always come from industries located near the farms where the food was produced or from the pesticides used on these farms. Instead, POPs cross international borders, moving thousands of miles in the air or water before entering a point source. This is why an international treaty to eliminate POPs is so important. 

This chapter provides an overview of the status of POPs contamination in developing countries. It discusses the important classes of POPs in developing countries, including their current and past sources, environmental distribution and temporal trends, and examines the problems faced by developing countries with the effective management of POPs. 

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Governments from around the world agreed to eliminate or minimize use of toxic chemicals that persist in the environment, now called persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which include many chlorinated hydrocarbons such as DDT and PCBs. The accord allows some developing countries to continue using DDT for controlling malaria. It also allows use of PCBs in electrical equipment until 2025, provided the equipment is maintained to prevent leaks. 

Some recent developments and future trends in international regulation of chemical contaminants in food are discussed in section 12.5. It is attempted to foresee some issues that could be of interest and concern for food scientists and legislators dealing with contaminants in food in the early part of the new millennium. Certainly, persistent organic pollutants, many of which are chlorinated hydrocarbons, and some of which have been used in the past and in fact may still be used in parts of the world as pesticides, will be among those issues of justified concern. 

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