May 21, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

UN conference aims to outlaw Òdirty dozenÓ chemicals 

LONDON, May 21, Graphic News: Delegates from more than 120 countries are meeting in Stockholm to sign a pact on Wednesday to outlaw or minimise use of a Òdirty dozenÓ toxic chemicals blamed for causing fatal diseases and birth defects among humans and animals.

The chemicals, used in pesticides, in fire retardants in homes and in paints and plastics, have been found to trigger disastrous side-effects including cancers.

Traces of the 12 so-called persistent organic pollutants (POPs), swept around the globe by air or ocean currents, have been found in the breast milk of Inuit women in the Arctic; been blamed for turning polar bears into hermaphrodites; and are believed to be responsible for the decline of many wild bird populations -- including Canada geese and American kestrels in the Columbia River basin of the United States.  

Meeting in Stockholm, environment ministers and senior officials will formally agree a deal to ban or restrict use of the chemicals, a pact which was hammered out in December in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The United States, under fire even from its allies since President George W. Bush pulled out of a global agreement aimed at combating global warming, will be among those ratifying -- in a sign that it is not abandoning all environmental cooperation.

But the Stockholm Convention is less controversial -- many of the 12 chemicals have been known killers for decades and have been banned in many industrial nations. And costs of eliminating them are far lower than fighting climate change.

ÒEvery single nation is going to have to do something it is not already doing to comply,Ó Jim Willis, director of chemicals for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said

Among the chemicals covered by the pact are the pesticides and insecticides aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin and endrin, blamed for inadvertently killing fish and birds. 

Dioxins and furans -- the unwanted by-products of chemical production or burning -- have also been linked to serious illness in humans. Of these two groups, 17 chemicals have been shown to be toxic to certain species of laboratory animals and have been implicated in disrupting the human endocrine system. One of the compounds, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, may also be cancer-producing in humans.

Also on the list are polychlorinated biphenyls, used as heat exchange fluids or as additives in paint and plastics, which are believed to have caused disorders in animals and birth defects in humans. The anti-malarial DDT, already widely restricted, is included as are several chemicals believed to be carcinogenic.

ÒItÕll be a victory for the environment if the words on paper and from the ministers are turned into concrete actions,Ó said Darryl Luscombe of Greenpeace.

ÒItÕs obviously good that the United States has agreed to sign and ratify. But of course they should also take their other international commitments just as seriously,Ó he said. 
/ENDS
Sources: Reuters, United Nations Evironment Programme