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PANUPS: Actions Against POPs Needed



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Governments Agree: Evidence Justifies Actions Against POPs

June 3, 1996

Representatives of 36 governments met in Canberra, Australia 
in March 1996, and agreed that available scientific evidence 
demonstrates the need for international action on persistent 
organic pollutants (POPs). The meeting took place under the 
auspices of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, 
and placed emphasis on a shortlist of 12 chemicals including 
dioxins and furans, PCBs, DDT, chlordane, toxaphene, hexa-
chlorobenzene and several other organochlorine pesticides*. 
The countries further agreed to prepare a formal 
recommendation on this matter for the annual meeting of the 
Governing Council of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), 
which will take place in January 1997.

The Canberra Meeting is the latest manifestation of growing 
international support for a legally binding global instrument 
for the reduction and/or elimination of persistent organic 
pollutants (see PANUPS, December 4, 1995). Governments have 
expressed similar sentiments at other recent international 
meetings:

* The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) created the 
Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution which is 
considering action on the same shortlist of POPs as UNEP. 
European countries as well as the U.S., Canada and Japan are 
involved.

* The June 1995 International Experts Meeting on POPs, hosted 
by Canada and the Philippines with 100 participants from over 
40 countries concluded, "There is enough scientific 
information on the adverse human health and environmental 
impacts of POPs to warrant coherent action at the national, 
regional and international level. This will include bans, 
phaseouts and provisional severe restrictions for certain 
POPs."

* In November 1995, one hundred countries, meeting in 
Washington DC to discuss international action to protect the 
marine environment, also called for a global, legally binding 
instrument on POPs. UNEP's 1995 Governing Council Meeting 
asked the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, 
together with several international agencies, to review the 
need for global action on POPs and to develop proposals for 
action. The Canberra meeting's decisions represent an 
important step in that direction. 

The Forum is organizing a second meeting which will take 
place in June 1996 in the Philippines. The June meeting will 
evaluate alternatives to POPs sources as well as costs, 
benefits, risks and response strategies. The meeting will 
then formulate a recommendation to UNEP detailing proposed 
policies and mechanisms for global action. One hundred Forum-
member countries will then be given an opportunity to comment 
by July 31. In August, the Forum will forward to UNEP both 
its recommendation and also a summary of country comments. 
This schedule will give UNEP time to review the 
recommendations and prepare a proposal for action at its 
January 1997 meeting.

Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network and other NGOs are 
seeking an international agreement on POPs that places a fair 
share of the economic burden on industrialized countries. A 
global POPs instrument must combine measures that phase out 
production and use of highly restricted organochlorine 
pesticides like DDT, toxaphene and others (measures whose 
social and economic burden falls predominantly on developing 
countries) with measures that address POPs-generating 
technologies in heavily industrialized countries. Of 
particular concern are dioxin-generating processes like the 
manufacture and use of PVC plastics, the chlorine bleaching 
of pulp and paper, and the incineration of chlorinated 
wastes. These technologies represent major global POPs 
sources, ones that industrialized countries are exporting 
aggressively to the Third World.

*The shortlist of 12 POPs includes aldrin, chlordane, DDT, 
dieldrin, dioxins, endrin, furans, heptachlor, 
hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, PCBs and toxaphene.

Source: International Toxics Investigator, Second Quarter, 
1996.

Contact: For a more detailed background paper, write to POPs 
c/o International Toxics Investigator, Greenpeace, 1436 U 
Street NW, Washington DC 20009; phone (202) 462-1177; fax 
(202) 462-4507; email greenpeace.usa@green2.greenpeace.org. 
Greenpeace will also send the June 22 UNEP recommendation in 
time for you to send comments to your government urging them 
to support strong global action.
 
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