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International: Persistent organic pollutants

United Kingdom
26/11/1999
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International negotiations on curbing the use of persistent organic pollutants have been carried out in Geneva, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme. Negotiators from 110 countries are hoping to complete a global treaty next year that will ban or restrict 12 persistent organic pollutants, the so-called “dirty dozen”. The pesticides DDT and toxaphene, industrial products such as polychlorinated biphenyls and contaminants such as dioxins are included on the list. A preliminary deal was struck on 14 September 1999 to ban 8 of the 12 listed toxic pollutants. DDT was exempted due to its public health need for its use in controlling mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria. The chemical which was banned in much of the West including the United States and Britain in the early 1970s, is still used for malaria control by more than 20 countries and the World Health Organisation says it remains the most effective way to deal with mosquitos that transmit the disease. The pesticides aldrin, endrin and toxaphene were agreed to be eliminated in the treaty expected to come into force in 2003. Chloradene, dieldrin, heptachlor and mirex and the industrial bi-product hexachlorobenzene are also to be eliminated, with some country-specific exemptions.
(Plant ARK Environment News, 15 September 1999, The Financial Times, 7 September 1999)

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