OVERVIEW%20OF%20PERSISTENT%20ORGANIC%20POLLUTANTS

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OVERVIEW OF PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS

• By
• HENRY O. WILLIAMS,
• GEF NATIONAL DIALOGUE INITIATIVE (NDI)
• National Environmental Forum (NEF) of Liberia
• Held at
• Cape Hotel, Mamba Point
• 20-22 November 2008
• MONROVIA, LIBERIA

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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
  countrys 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.

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BACKGROUND-CONT

• 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
  countrys 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

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Table 1 Initial List of 12 Persistent Organic
Pollutants (POPs) under Stockholm Convention
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Dynamics of Persistent Organic Pollutants
(POPs) in the Environment
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Biomagnification of POPs over Trophic levels
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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/CONT

• 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 POISONING
YUSHO 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.
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Uses of the Initial 12 POPs (Dirty dozen) to be
controlled under Stockholm Convention
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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• A precautionary approach to POPs uses a variety
  of regulatory and market-based approaches to
  reduce
• exposure and stimulate the development of safer
  substitutes, process designs, and products.
• Emphasis on public awareness, cleaner production,
  legislation, increased capacity and availability
  of
• financial 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 trade

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION POPS ARE
DANGEROUS
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