UN-backed treaty banning most dangerous pollutants comes into force Monday
An international treaty banning the world's most dangerous pesticides, industrial chemicals and hazardous by-products of combustion enters into force on Monday, marking the start of an ambitious United Nations-backed effort to rid the planet of some of the worst pollutants tied to cancer, birth defects and immune system damage.
UN-backed treaty banning most dangerous pollutants comes into force Monday
An international treaty banning the world's most dangerous pesticides, industrial chemicals and hazardous by-products of combustion enters into force on Monday, marking the start of an ambitious United Nations-backed effort to rid the planet of some of the worst pollutants tied to cancer, birth defects and immune system damage.
"The Stockholm Convention will save lives and protect the natural environment - particularly in the poorest communities and countries - by banning the production and use of some of the most toxic chemicals known to humankind," Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), under whose auspices the treaty was adopted, said in a statement today.
"Over the next several years national investments plus donor pledges of hundreds of millions will channel more than $500 million into an overdue and urgently needed initiative to ensure that future generations do not have to live as we do with measurable quantities of these toxic chemicals stored in their bodies," he said.
The 2001 Stockholm Convention deals with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). For decades these highly toxic chemicals have killed and sickened people and animals by causing cancer and damaging the nervous, reproductive and immune systems. They have also caused uncounted birth defects.
Every human in the world carries traces in his or her body the highly stable compounds that can last for years or decades before breaking down. They circulate globally through a process known as the "grasshopper effect." POPs released in one part of the world can, through a repeated process of evaporation and deposit, be transported through the atmosphere to regions far away from the original source.
There are alternatives to most POPs but high costs, a lack of public awareness, and the absence of appropriate infrastructure and technology have often prevented their adoption. Solutions must be tailored to the specific properties and uses of each chemical, as well as to each country's climatic and socio-economic conditions.
The treaty seeks, among other measures, to reduce or eliminate the carcinogenic chemicals known as dioxins and furans, produced unintentionally as by-products of combustion, and assist countries in malarial regions to replace DDT with safe alternatives. The 12 POPs are aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene, dioxins and furans.
The 90-day countdown to the treaty's entry into force started when France became the 50th country to ratify the pact in February.