POPs Treaty Goes To U.S. Senate For Ratification

Environment News Service (ENS)

POPs Treaty Goes To U.S. Senate For Ratification

WASHINGTON, DC, April 11, 2002 (ENS) - The Bush administration is on the road to ratification of a treaty banning the use of 12 toxic chemicals that persist in the environment for long periods of time, travel great distances and accumulate in the food chain.

Whitman

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman (Photo courtesy EPA)

Christie Whitman, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, today announced that President George W. Bush is submitting the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) to the Senate for its ratification. Additional legislation to amend existing U.S. laws needed to implement the POPs treaty and two other related treaties also goes to Congress today.

The persistent organic pollutants covered by the treaty are the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, and toxaphene; the industrial chemicals PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and hexachlorobenzene, which is also a pesticide; and dioxins and furans, which are the unwanted byproducts of combustion and industrial processes.

"Concerted global action addressing these 12 toxic chemicals and pesticides will provide significant protection to the health of many Americans, particularly Alaskan residents and those who live around the Great Lakes," said Whitman. "Taking strong steps to reduce these chemicals will also have significant benefits for the health of millions of people throughout the world, especially in developing nations," she said.

But the Bush legislation bars the EPA from implementing a key component of the POPs treaty, according to Physicians for Social Responsibility. The treaty, as written and signed by Whitman on behalf of the United States in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 23, 2001, establishes a clear process based on science for the addition of similar chemicals to the banned list in the future. This process is restricted by the Bush legislation.

sprayer

Sprayer covers a field with chemicals. (Photo courtesy Juneau School District)

"The Bush administration proposal ties the EPA's hands, limiting domestic implementation to 12 POPs already regulated in the U.S.," said public health expert Robert Musil, Ph.D., who is CEO and executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

"Congress must now come forward with legislation that will implement the full intent of the POPs treaty as a dynamic, flexible instrument to protect human health now and into the future," he urged.

The legislative package will implement three multi-lateral environmental agreements that Whitman says are "essential to protecting environmental and human health" in the United States and the world:

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, signed in Stockholm, May 23, 2001;

the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade signed in Rotterdam, September 11, 1998;

the Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants, signed in Aarhus on June 24, 1998.

The legislative package submitted to Congress also includes amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

President Bush endorsed the treaty in a Rose Garden Ceremony on April 19, 2001. He said then, "This treaty shows the possibilities for cooperation among all parties to our environmental debates. Developed nations cooperated with less-developed nations. Businesses cooperated with environmental groups. And now, a Republican administration will continue and complete the work of a Democratic administration."

"It is clear now that the President isn't truly committed to the treaty's long term goals, but seems simply to be fishing for a short term boost to his dismal environmental record," said Musil.

The Stockholm Convention obligates all participating countries to take measures to eliminate or restrict the production, use, and trade of intentionally produced POPs.

Governments must develop action plans to address the release of byproduct POPs, such as using best available techniques to reduce emissions of POPs from new sources; and to address the safe handling and disposal of POPs stockpiles and wastes.

To date, 126 countries have signed the Stockholm Convention, while five of those countries have ratified the treaty are now Parties: Canada, Fiji, Lesotho, Netherlands, and Samoa.





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