From Africa Recovery, Vol.14#4 (January 2001), Briefs page

New international treaty bans a dozen toxic 'POPs'

After a week of talks in Johannesburg, South Africa, negotiators from 122 countries produced a landmark environmental treaty in early December that will ban 12 of the world's most toxic pollutants, described as "the dirty dozen" by some participants. The ban covers eight pesticides, two industrial chemicals (including PCBs) and two unwanted by-products of combustion and other industrial processes (dioxins and furans).

All have been linked to birth defects, other genetic abnormalities, cancer and conditions fatal to humans, domestic animals and wildlife. The environmental activist group Greenpeace hailed the new agreement as "the beginning of the end of toxic pollution."

These chemicals -- called persistent organic pollutants (POPs) -- are carried by wind and rain well beyond their areas of original use, concentrate in the fatty tissues of living beings and remain toxic for years or even decades. Some of the toxins turn up in arctic whales and African streams, far from the industrial countries where they often originate.

Therefore, a "global treaty is the necessary global defence against these poisons," commented Mr. Klaus Töpfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, which organized the negotiations.

Most of the 12 pollutants listed are subject to an immediate ban, but exemptions granted include DDT, which is still needed in African and other countries to control malaria. Industrialized nations agreed to help find the resources -- about $150 mn annually -- to help poor countries find alternatives to DDT and to enforce the ban.

The treaty is to be formally adopted and signed at a meeting on 22-23 May 2001, in Stockholm. It will then have to be ratified by at least 50 countries before coming into force. A review committee will regularly consider additions to the list of banned POPs.

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