POPs treaty

Effective environmental management and decision making. Discuss how scientists and decision makers can best develop risk assessment, risk management and risk communication systems to achieve environmental goals. Use the POPs treaty and Chinese obligations under the treaty as an example for which effective management systems can be developed. 

The elites in even the poorest countries, such as Mozambique, think it almost unseemly to use a pesticide that has been banned in the North and is due for elimination under the POPs treaty.28... 

While the delegates of the countries who signed the POPs treaty think they have been magnanimous in exempting DDT from an immediate ban, they have unwittingly consigned many children to death in Africa. Simply listing DDT in the treaty has been sufficient for that. 

The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs). It was adopted on 22 May 2001 and entered into force on 17 May 2004. Official website .http //chm.pops.int/. 

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... 

Other chemicals may be added to the treaty by in the future based on recommendations from the POPs Review Committee. 

Indeed, some developing countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Ecuador, Indonesia, and India, have quietly used DDT for the past three decades, without exciting much comment In 199 7, however, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) decided to promote a treaty—a framework convention—that would ban twelve persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including DDT, in all countries. 

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. 

The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty committing the international community to protecting human health and the environment from the potentially harmful effects of POPs (UNEP Chemicals, 2005). The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has identified 12 most toxic POPs (the Dirty Dozen ) for control under the Convention, including 10 intentionally produced POPs pesticides/industrial chemicals (aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, toxaphene and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)) and two unintentionally produced POPs by-products (polychlorinated dibenzo-/ -dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs)). In implementing the Convention, Parties to the Convention will take measures to restrict the trade, production and use of the intentional POPs and to reduce and, where possible, to ultimately eliminate the production and release of the unintentional POPs by-products. 

The other reason for a prominent PTS pollution is, India is yet to formulate a comprehensive policy on pesticides and other chemicals. The Insecticides Act, 1968 does regulate the manufactures, registration, use, export and import of pesticides in the country but does not have much control on its consumers. There are many other policy decisions and Acts on environmental management in India which will be discussed later in this chapter. India has already banned the use of 9 of the 12 POPs slated for ultimate elimination from the world use in a United Nations treaty adopted in Stockholm on May 23, 2001. The three remaining POPs include PCBs, DDT and dioxins and furans. 

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. 

In addition, in the field of the sound management of chemicals, two very recent treaties - the Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent procedure, which entered into force on 24 February 2004, and the Stockholm POPs Convention, which entered into force on 17 May 2004 - have attracted the interest of large numbers of States not Party to... 

By 1971, the concerns about human health and environmental impacts led Monsanto, the producer of PCBs in the United States, to a voluntary ban on sales of PCBs except for closed systems use. Monsanto ceased all production in 1977 and there was no large-scale increase in imports. PCBs were banned from production and further use in the United States in 1978. Equipment that already contained PCBs, e.g., transformers, were allowed to remain in use but restrictions were placed on the disposal of PCBs when the equipment was decommissioned. Delegates from 122 countries completed a draft treaty on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in December 2000. The POPs that were initially addressed and banned from further use include chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene, PCBs, hexachlorbenzene, chlorinated dibenzofurans, and chlorinated dibenzodioxins. Fimited selective use of DDT for human disease vector control is allowed in some countries. 

Toxics ceasing completely the use (including production, release, transfer and application) of key persistent organic pollutants (POPs) through complete and effective international treaty phasing out a selected list of endocrine dismpting chemicals (EDCs) and establishing an international... 

National environmental laws often reflect two global treaties, the Rotterdam Convention and the Stockholm Convention. Brief summaries follow. The Rotterdam Convention establishes a prior informed consent (PIC) procedure for importing shipments of chemicals listed in Annex 111 of the convention and provides for information exchange between participating countries. Adopted in September 1998, it entered into force February 2004 [1]. The 2001 Stockholm Convention requires parties to the treaty to take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into the environment [2]. As described in this chapter, regulations on persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances address POPs. Industry value in 1970 dollars adjusted for inflation using the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator at http //www.bls.gov/data/inflation calcula-tor.htm, equivalent to 1.01 trillion in 2010. 

A second treaty on POPs broadened the focus beyond air pollutants that could migrate long distances [109] ... 

Prohibit and/or take the legal and administrative measures necessary to eliminate the production, use, import, and export of the POPs specified in the treaty... 

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants An internadonalenvi-ronmental treaty that aims to eliminate, reduce, or restrict the production and use of chemicals described as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). These are chemical substances capable of persisting in the environment and may pose a risk to human health and to the environment. Formed by the United Nations Environment Programme, the environmental treaty was established with cooperation of many international members and signed in 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Convention includes requirements that developed countries provide resources to ensure that POP production and use are eliminated, whether intentional or unintentional, and that they are disposed in environmentally responsible ways. 

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