OVERVIEW OF PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS

By HENRY O. WILLIAMS,

GEF NATIONAL DIALOGUE INITIATIVE (NDI)&

National Environmental Forum (NEF) of LiberiaHeld at

Cape Hotel, Mamba Point 20-22 November 2008

MONROVIA, LIBERIA

BACKGROUND• The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is the first global, legally

binding instrument whose aim is to protect human health and the environment by controlling the production, use and disposal of toxic chemicals. As ratified, the Convention addresses a “dirty dozen” group of chemicals, those that stay in the environment for a long time, are poisonous, and build up in living things-pose an unacceptable threat to human health and the environment. The Convention establishes a science-based process for identifying and eliminating POPs worldwide.

• The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), to which Liberia acceded on May 23, 2002, requires all parties to prepare a national implementation plan (NIP) in accordance with Article 7 as the basis for a national phase-out or reduction program and eventual elimination of POPs at the country and global levels.

• In compliance thereof, the Government of Liberia (GOL) through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) launched the POPs Enabling Activities Project to facilitate early action on the implementation of the Convention. The goal is to strengthen the country’s capacity and capability to prepare the NIP for the management of POPs. The NIP will serve as the benchmark for crucial policy formulation and identification of priority actions.

• Chemicals are of multipurpose uses in agriculture, medicine, industrial manufacturing, public health/vector control, etc.

•  Yet Serious dangers to environment and human health posed by toxic chemicals/wastes.

• A Sweet & Sour Story. ELIXIR OF LIFE HARBINGER OF DEATH

• Most Global Environmental problems i.e : Ozone Layer Depletion, Green House gases Emission/Global Warming/Climate Change, Transboundary Movement in Toxic Wastes, Persistent Organic Pollutants, Biodiversity Conservation are directly or indirectly linked to chemicals.

• Hence chemicals are of priority global concern

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BACKGROUND-CON’T

• The Convention to which Liberia acceded on May 23, 2002, requires all parties to prepare a national implementation plan (NIP) in accordance with Article 7 as the basis for a national phase-out or reduction program and eventual elimination of POPs at the country and global levels.

• In compliance thereof, the Government of Liberia (GOL) through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) launched the POPs Enabling Activities Project to facilitate early action on the implementation of the Convention. The goal is to strengthen the country’s capacity and capability to prepare the NIP for the management of POPs.

• The NIP, produced in August 2006 will serve as the benchmark for crucial policy formulation and identification of priority actions on POPs.

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WHAT ARE PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS ?

• POPs is used to describe a class of toxic chemical substances that can harm human health and the environment

. One definition of POPs is provided in the 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants of the 1979 Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution:

• "Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are organic substances that: (i) possess toxic characteristics; (ii) are persistent; (iii) bioaccumulate; (iv) are prone to long-range transboundary atmospheric transport and deposition; and (v) are likely to cause significant adverse human health or environmental effects near to and distant from their sources” 4

Table 1 :Initial List of 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) under Stockholm Convention

Chemical Pesticides Industrial Chemicals

By-products

AldrinChlordaneDDTDieldrinEndrinHeptachlorMirexToxaphene 

++++++++

   

HCB PCBs

+ + +

 +  +

Chlorinated Dioxins Chlorinated Furans 

      

+  +

    

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Dynamics of Persistent Organic Pollutant’s (POP’s) in the Environment

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Biomagnification of POPs over Trophic levels7

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THE NIP PROCESS

Upon approval of the proposal, UNIDO the implementing agency and the EPA, the executing agency agreed on a sub-contract.The NIP Process was facilitated by the EPA through Mr. Henry O. Williams serving as the National Project Coordinated. To start the production process, a POPs National Committee (PNC) was formed and a national project office established at the EPA. Agreed with UNIDO, a Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) was appointed. Expert Task Teams including Health, Education and Public Awareness, Contamination and emission, Research and Legal were constituted to produce technical reports on inventories, national infrastructures and capacity. The Ministries and agencies served as follows: Ministry of Health and Rural development on the Health Task team, Education on the Education and Public Awareness, Ministry of Commerce and the Monrovia City Corporation on the Contamination and Emission, Ministry of Planning on Research, Ministries of Defense and Justice on the Legal Team.

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EXPOSURE ROUTE OF HUMANS TO CHEMICALS/POPs 

  

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THE NIP PROCESS/CON’T

The POPs project stakeholders were drawn from Ministries and Agencies of Government, Educational Institutions, NGOs, UN Agencies and Industries. To finalize the process, an inception workshop was held in May 2004 in Monrovia, followed by a training workshop on Inventory Procedures. A one day National Priority Validation workshop was then held to validate the report which was finally produced in August 2006.The financial mechanism for this project was the GEF

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SYMPTOMS OF PCB POISONINGYUSHO PATIENT (PCB POISONING VICTIM)

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THE BACK OF VICTIM OF PCB POISONING

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RESULTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• After the production of the NIP, a National Chemical Control Task Force was constituted

• Action Plan Skill Building and Development training was held in 2006 by UNITAR

• A draft legislation on POPs and Waste was produced in 2007 by UNIDO

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CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES

• Apart from the above activities not much have been achieved.The enabling activities in the implementation plan have not been addressed. Consequently Awareness on POPs is very low; the capacities of stakeholders in Liberia to respond to issues relating to POPs Chemicals has not built; Risk reduction activities such as the collection and analysis of data on the exposure of the Liberian population and its environment to POPs have not been done; the development of a comprehensive legislation to support an integrated approach to POPs/Chemicals Management is not yet complete, complete inventories of POPs sources, storage facilities and contaminated sites have not been taken; remediation measures to dispose of possible POPs stockpiles and contaminated equipments and containers and the cleaning of possible contaminated sites have not been put in place; effective monitoring, research and reporting mechanism are not also existing; inappropriate use and abuse and illegal trade and use

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 Plate X.1: Incomplete combustion practices and increasingly diffuse sources are some of the main PCDD/PCDF releases to the environment, although there are also non-anthropogenic sources

(Adapted from RBA PTS Global Report UNEP/GEF 2003)

Plate X.2: DDT is still being used for malaria control in some countries in Africa and Asian countries, Indian Ocean and Central and South American regions

(Adapted from RBA PTS Global Report UNEP/GEF 2003)

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Fig 2.3. Visible pesticide aggregate (yellow) in soil associated with an obsolete pesticide dump inVikuge, Tanzania; a legacy of international aid. 17

Uses of the Initial 12 POPs (Dirty dozen) to be controlled under Stockholm Convention 18

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS• A precautionary approach to POPs uses a variety of

regulatory and market-based approaches to reduceexposure and stimulate the development of safer substitutes, process designs, and products.

• Emphasis on public awareness, cleaner production, legislation, increased capacity and availability offinancial resources will assist in alleviating some of the problems that exist with POPs and search for alternatives. National and International collaboration

• While alternatives exist for some POPs chemicals, for many research is required to further assess the threat and to find other methods to reduce emissions to the environment.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONSCONTD

• The protection of the environment and human health from the adverse effects of PTS chemicals requires significant capacity in a variety of areas which is effectively integrated and coordinated within a country but also between countries within a Region.

• Adequate capacity is required in:• Monitoring and testing of sources, environmental

and product contamination, human exposure• National, Regional and International Legislation,

including control of manufacturing, registration, use, and Disposal of POPs

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONSCONTD

• Supervision of chemical production, use and disposal including production of wastes, operator health and safety, control and monitoring of releases

• Identification and application of alternatives and controls

• Awareness on POPS should be intensified

• Monitoring of illegal trade21

THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION

POPS ARE DANGEROUS

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