The head of the United Nations body tasked with setting the global environmental agenda today stressed the need to limit the use of dangerous chemicals and to find a solution to the masses of electronic waste building up around the world, as a Conference of Parties to three major Conventions on the subject began in Geneva today.<\/p>\n
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme<\/a> (UNEP), told journalists that the \u201ctsunami of e-waste rolling out over the world\u201d not only accounted for a large portion of the world\u2019s non-recyclable \u201cwaste mountain\u201d but also needed dealing with because many elements found in electronic equipment are potentially hazardous to people and the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cNever mind that it is also an economic stupidity because we are throwing away an enormous amount of raw materials that are essentially re-useable,\u201d said Mr. Steiner. \u201cWhether it is gold, silver or some of the rare earths that you have heard about perhaps in recent years, it is still an incredible amount.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Steiner said that the amount of some such materials that are available above ground in unused electronics now exceeds the amount still in the ground and he looked to the potential of the Basel Convention to help access \u2018urban mines\u2019 by working to better inform people of how to dispose of their e-waste.<\/p>\n As well as the Basel Convention, for which the Geneva meeting is the 12th Conference of Parties, the eleven-day \u20182015 Triple COPs: Setting the Scene for Sustainable Management of Chemicals and Waste, Worldwide\u2019 will also cover the Seventh Conference of Parties to both the Rotterdam and the Stockholm Conventions. Over 1,500 delegates are expected to take part in the talks, which aim to improve three international conventions contributing to global controls on hazardous chemicals and waste.<\/p>\n The Executive Director said the three Conventions were not about stopping the use of chemicals but about providing a clear platform from which to inform policy-makers of science that can inform decisions to help protect citizens from toxicity and about signalling to the market that alternatives are needed.<\/p>\n He pointed out how materials used in production of various items are becoming ever more present in people\u2019s daily lives, and he said people were becoming \u201cincreasingly a repository for the chemical footprint of the 21st century,\u201d often in ways that damage health.<\/p>\n \u201cAnnually, one million people die from occupational poisoning,\u201d Mr. Steiner said, referring to the effects of the use of chemicals on people\u2019s bodies. \u201cThis is something that is, in this day and age, not only unnecessary it\u2019s really intolerable. And this is why the sound management of chemicals is something that has brought Governments, civil society but also the private sector and the chemical industry together.\u201d<\/p>\n The Executive Secretary of Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, Rolph Payet, echoed Mr. Steiner\u2019s concerns about the number of people dying from occupational poisoning and described the wide reach of chemicals, with DDT found in polar bear and fat because of its transport in water and in the air. While the number of those dying from occupational poisoning was notable, he also pointed to the \u201csilent crisis,\u201d whereby the accumulation of chemicals in people\u2019s bodies was possibly slowly killing them.<\/p>\n Clayton Campanhola, the Executive Secretary of Rotterdam Convention and a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization<\/a> (FAO), said the agency was particularly focused on the prevention of use and safe disposal of obsolete pesticides. About 500,000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides scattered around the developing wold posed serious risks to people and environment, he said.<\/p>\n