Some of the fifty Greenpeace women greeting delegates
It's taken a long time. Efforts to ban many of the chlorinated pesticides and PCB's started with American author Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring of thirty years ago.
Since then, many individual nations including the United States have banned or severely regulated these chemicals. At the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, plans were made to proceed towards a worldwide ban.
Many of you, our members, signed our petition in 1994 to the UN and wrote letters concerning the Land Based Sources of Marine Pollution treaty. We are happy to report that finalization of this treaty is slated for the year 2000.
Diplomats from ninety two nations met again in Montreal for the week of June 29, 1998 to continue negotiations to phase out on a global basis twelve organochlorine chemicals called POPs or persistent organic pollutants under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme. [DDT, PCB'S, dioxins, furans, aldrin, chlordane, endrin, hept- achlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, and toxaphene]
The UN delegates were greeted at the door by about fifty Greenpeace women, costumed as if they were pregnant, in a symbolic gesture to remind people that these particular chemicals pose a threat to children and the young of all species.(photo above)
The twelve pesticides and industrial chemicals were chosen for global phaseouts first because many countries have already banned their production and use. Secondly, they have very long lives in the environment. They build up in the food chain and the fat of living things, as well as in mother's milk to poisonous levels.
And third, these chemicals tend to evaporate or attach themselves to the particulates of smoke plumes to travel hundreds and even thousands of miles away from original release. They've been found in every part of the globe, including heavy contamination of the Arctic food chain due to long-distance drift.
Polar Bear Hermaphrodite Cubs
Today, the polar bear is so contaminated with PCB's that these wonderful animals would be considered toxic waste in the United States.
The health effects can be profound. Norwegian scientists report finding four polar bear hermaphrodite cubs with both male and female sex organs. Never before have such high numbers of these birth defects been found. (Chemistry and Industry, July 9, 1998)
All of the 12 chemicals are considered "endocrine disruptors" with dramatic effects on reproduction and behavior as well as leaming ability and -aggressiveness of offspring. A popular book on this issue was written by Dr. Theo Colbom of the World Wildlife Fund entitled, Our Stolen Future. We'll return to the issue.
Scandiavian Initiative Begins Process
The high levels of organochlorine and mercury in the environment of northern nations and in fish - much of it blowing in from other parts of the world - has caused great concern in Iceland and other Scandinavian nations. And they have provided a lot of leadership. The Icelanders eat much seafood.
1998 Aarhus Protocol: Several regional phaseout agreements have already been concluded. The most recent is a POPs phaseout treaty for the Economic Commission for Europe (EEC), which includes the United States, Canada, Russia and Eastern Europe.
Entitled the "Convention on the Long-Range Trans- boundary Air Pollution of Persistent Organic Pollutants" it was adopted in Aarhus, Denmark in June 1998. The convention includes phaseout schedules for 18 organochlorine chemicals but also a program for the phaseout of heavy metals - mercury, cadmium and lead. When ratified by 16 nations, the Aarhus Protocol will take on the binding force of international law.
Montreal Negotiations Seek Inclusion of Developing Nations in POPs Bans
The European negotiations in Denmark were seen as a way to lay a fonnat for a global treaty that will include developing nations, which have been prodigious user of some of the chlorinated pesticides like DDT that now contaminate global environments.
The next step is a separate developing nation negotiation in Buenos Aires in November. The global POPs phaseout treaty is slated to be ready for signing by the end of the year 2000.
Three sticking points are the claim that the insecticide DDT is still necessary to prevent malaria. Secondly, Russia has revealed that they still manufacture PCBs for electric transformer fluid. And third, there was a need for a procedure to add additional POPs for phaseouts in the future.
Reports by ourselves1 and by the World Wildlife Fund pointed out that alternative programs for mosquito control are already being used and that a vaccine for malaria is very close to achievement.
Whom to Write
So far, the US delegation has been very cooperative. After all, the chemicals being considered for phaseout are considered mostly commercially obsolete. Others like dioxins, furans and HCB are unintended contaminants.
The previous letters of our members have been very helpful. If you would like to urge the US delegation to stick with the policy of "POPs Elimination", which entirely different than regulation, you might want to write:
Secretary Madeleine Albright
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520 |
Environmental and medical groups from all around the world have formed a new organization IPEN or International POPs Elimination Network to coordinate citizen efforts. We're a member.
News Brief: In July, consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced plans to create an American Museum of Tort Law in Winsted, Connecticut.
20th Century U.S. Precipitation Trends
The accompanying histogram shows precipitation trends (in percent per century) for various categories of precipitation amounts (in percentiles) over the contiguous United States,from 1910 to 1996.