U.N. sharpens focus on toxic chemicals

Stockpiles of unwanted and obsolete pesticides and toxic chemicals are accumulating throughout the world

By Environmental News Network staff

March 31, 1998
Web posted at: 5:54 p.m. EST (2254 GMT)

The modern environmental movement picked up much of its momentum from Rachel Carson's 1962 classic "Silent Spring," which paints a devastating picture of the effect hazardous chemicals have on the environment.

The book prompted many nations from around the world to develop extensive regulatory controls on such chemicals as DDT, but nothing, until recently, had been done on an international level.

Just days after finishing the text of the U.N. Environment Program's Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Convention regulating international trade in hazardous chemicals, governments have decided to meet again in Montreal on June 29 to begin talks on a second treaty that would limit the release of chemicals such as DDT and PCBs into the environment.

"Thousands of people are killed or seriously poisoned by toxic pesticides and chemicals every year," said Klaus Topfer, executive director of the UNEP. "The newly agreed PIC treaty will provide a first line of defense against future tragedies by preventing unwanted imports of dangerous chemicals, particularly in developing countries.

"The future POPs (persistent organic pollutants) treaty will build on this accomplishment by reducing or eliminating releases and emissions of hazardous chemicals into the global environment," he said.

POPs are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of adverse effects on human health and the environment.

Since these chemicals circulate globally -- whether through trade or naturally via air, water, and animals -- no country acting alone can protect its citizens or environment from risk, says the UNEP.

"In recent years, scientists have learned a great deal more about the long-term effects that low dosages of certain chemicals can have," Topfer said.

"We now understand that in addition to the deaths and acute effects caused by direct and immediate contact, POPs and other chemicals persist for years at background levels that can cause long-term damage to human health and the environment," he said.

"There is also evidence that these substances travel to remote areas, so that international borders do not offer any protection to anyone," Topfer said.

Unwanted and obsolete stockpiles of pesticides and toxic chemicals are accumulating throughout the world, especially in developing countries.

Dump sites and toxic drums from the 1950s, '60s and '70s are now decaying and leaching chemicals into the soil and thus poisoning water resources, wildlife and people. A great deal of infrastructure and equipment such as electrical transformers and capacitors are also at or near the end of their useful lives and are leaking PCBs and other dangerous chemicals.

The PIC Convention, to be formally adopted in September, will establish an international alert list and help developing countries obtain the information they need to protect themselves.

The treaty is based on the principle of prior informed consent, which states that exports of dangerous substances should not proceed unless explicitly agreed to by the importing country.

At first the treaty will apply to about 27 chemicals, with potentially hundreds more qualifying on the basis of future decisions by the parties.

Meanwhile, the talks in Montreal beginning June 29 will initiate work on a second treaty that will focus on the release and emissions of POPs, which include some of the most toxic chemicals ever developed.

The talks will start with a list of 12 POPs: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, dioxins, endrin, furans, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, PCBs and toxaphene. More will be added later. These negotiations, also under the auspices of UNEP, are to be completed by the year 2000.

POPs remain in the environment and circulate globally through the "grasshopper effect." POPs released in one part of the world can, through a repeated -- and often seasonal -- process of release and deposit, be transported to regions far away from their original source. This is why POPs can be found in people and animals living in the Arctic, thousands of miles from any major POPs source.

POPs are also transported via living organisms through a process known as bioaccumulation. POPs are not soluble in water but 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.

Evidence about the likely health effects of POPs is steadily growing. Effects can include cancer, allergies and hypersensitivity, and diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the immune system. Reproductive disorders are thought to result from chemicals that function as "endocrine disrupters".

Copyright 1998, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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Related ENN Story:

• Endocrine disrupters travel far, says report

Related site:

• UNEP's Persistent Organic Pollutants

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