Resource HANDBOOK - IPEN Global Week of Action/ Earth Day & COP1:


Global | May 2, 2005



This year for Earth Day (April 22nd), IPEN has teamed up with Earth Day Network and their International Program, in an effort to raise awareness about POPs, and to Protect our Environment and Children"

Keep the Promise Campaign

In preparation for the first Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention, IPEN has launched the "Keep the Promise" campaign. This COP1 Handbook outlines four COP1 topics -providing background relevance- and then links these topics with the IPEN Perspective/goals and IPEN activities and resources for the Keep the Promise campaign.

(The Handbook is available for download below)


Keep the Promise Objective

Urge governments to Keep the Promise of the Stockholm Convention by pursuing policies that lead to POPs elimination at the First Conference of the Parties.

The Stockholm Convention on POPs is the first global, legally binding instrument whose aim is to protect human health and the environment by controlling production, use and disposal of toxic chemicals. IPEN views the Stockholm Convention text as a promise to take the actions needed to protect the global public’s health and the global environment from the injuries that are caused by persistent organic pollutants, a promise that was agreed by representatives of the global community: governments, interested stakeholders, and representatives of civil society. We call upon all Stockholm Convention Parties and stakeholders to honor the integrity of the Convention text at the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) in Uruguay. Keep the promise!

  View the IPEN COP1 Position Brief


Promises to Keep

Key topics that will be discussed at COP1:

1 - BY-PRODUCTS (U-POPs) & BAT/BEP GUIDELINES

BACKGROUD

One topic concerns by-product POPs (dioxins, furans, PCBs, and HCB) and how countries should design and operate facilities to minimize their generation and release. The Convention aims to eliminate these POPs and gives priority consideration to alternatives that do not generate Unintentional POPs (U-POPs) and promotes substitution to prevent their formation. Public interest NGOs want to ensure that the Guidelines on Best Available Techniques and Best Environmental Practices (BAT/BEP) preserve the intent of the Convention.

IPEN PERSPECTIVE

The draft guidelines are a useful document that reflects a lot of good work and contains information Parties could find valuable in their NIP development activities. However, the draft has substantial inadequacies, such as its inconsistent and misleading section on cement kiln use for firing hazardous waste, and thus it is not ready for adoption at COP1. The Guidelines should be further developed with the goal of preparing a more finished version for adoption at COP2.

IPEN ACTIVITIES & RESOUCES:

  • The IPEN Egg Report highlights the widespread presence of by-product POPs by sampling eggs from around the world and presenting the results prior to COP1.

      Link to the IPEN Global Egg Project here.

  • A Work In Progress: BAT/BEP Guidelines Critique - Download HERE.

  • Alternatives to POPs Disposal - Download HERE.



    2 - DISPOSAL OF POPs WASTE & DEFINING "LOW" POPS CONTENT

    BACKGROUND

    At COP1 the Parties may consider the Basel Convention POPs Waste Guidelines and the Guidelines definition of "low" POPs content. The Basel Convention primarily covers wastes that move across national borders and this includes the 12 POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention. POPs require guidelines for management and disposal but the proposed Basel Convention levels of most POPs in wastes that trigger the requirement for destruction or irreversible transformation are quite permissive at 50 ppm. Delegates at COP1 may have the opportunity to tighten these guidelines so that they provide greater protection to human health and the environment.


    IPEN PERSPECTIVE

    The Basel Convention POPs Waste Guidelines should not be adopted at COP1, because they are not consistent with Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention. The Basel Guidelines do not establish levels of destruction and irreversible transformation that ensure that POPs characteristics are no longer exhibited. Instead, they permit significant releases of POPs to the environment, where the allowable levels of POPs releases in the current version of the Basel POPs Waste Guidelines are not specific, do not take into account considerations of potential harm to public health and the environment, and are not based on the capabilities of available technologies for the destruction/irreversible transformation of POPs in wastes.

    The current Basel POPs Waste Guidelines set the definition of "low" at levels that are inappropriately high (50 ppm). If this definition stands, it will become difficult for Parties to mobilize resources in order to properly detoxify POPs wastes, and this will have profoundly negative impacts on public health and on environmental protection.


    IPEN ACTIVITIES & RESOUCES:

  • Inconsistent: The Problem With The Basel Guidelines on POPs Waste- Download HERE.

  • After Incineration: The Toxic Ash Problem- Fly Ash Report - Download HERE.



    3 - NATIONAL DIOXIN INVENTORY & SOURCES

    BACKGROUD

    Each country must prepare an inventory of its dioxin sources and estimates of their releases. A country will not receive GEF funds for addressing dioxin sources that are not listed in its inventory. To help countries assemble their inventories, UNEP developed a draft Standardized Toolkit for Identification and Quantification of Dioxin and Furan Releases. The Toolkit does not cover important by-product POPs such as HCB and PCBs and incompletely addresses calculations of dioxin and furan releases.



    IPEN PERSPECTIVE

    We recommend that the Parties do not adopt the Dioxin Toolkit; it is a flawed document that poses serious limitations to implementing the Stockholm Convention. We suggest COP1 call for substantial revisions, where Parties and stakeholders need better opportunities to provide input and to review the results, in order to insure a more responsive and transparent process. The Toolkit does not incorperate or utilized data from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, therefore it is limited to references and circumstances only from developed countries. In addition when there is considerable uncertainty, emission factors should not be reported as a single number, but should be listed as a likely high figure, a likely low figure, and a likely median figure.Since each country’s dioxin inventory has a substantial impact on national priorities and resource allocations in its National Implementation Plan, a more accurate and transparent Dioxin Toolkit is essential.



    IPEN ACTIVITIES & RESOUCES:

  • The Egg Report highlights the widespread presence of by-product POPs by sampling eggs from around the world and presenting the results prior to COP1.

       Link to the IPEN Global Egg Project here.

  • IPEN Dioxin Toolkit Fact Sheet - Download HERE.



    4 - ADDING POPs TO THE CONVENTION (POPRC)

    BACKGROUD

    The Stockholm Convention is a "living" treaty that can add new substances that display POPs characteristics. The first step requires assembling a POPs Review Committee (POPRC) that will consider candidate compounds. At COP1, decisions will be made about the composition of this "POPROC" committee. Only delegates from countries that have ratified the treaty can participate on the POPRC committee. The EU has already proposed a list of nine compounds it considers to be priority candidates for addition including the pesticide lindane and industrial chemical PBDE. Public interest NGOs want to ensure that the POPRC committee promptly addresses dangerous substances with POPs characteristics.



    IPEN PERSPECTIVE

    As an urgent matter, several substances widely used and known to have POPs characteristics – persistence, bio-accumulation, long-range transport and adverse health and environmental impacts – should be nominated for early consideration by the POPs Review Committee (POPRC): hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH, including ?-HCH, lindane), Dicofol, and Endosulfan; brominated flame retardants; perfluorinated chemicals, including but not limited to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS); chlorinated paraffins; organotins; brominated dioxins and bromo-chloro-dioxins; polychorinated napthalenes (PCN) and octachlorostyrene (OCS). Parties should also consider listing methyl mercury.



    IPEN ACTIVITIES & RESOUCES:

  • The IPEN Egg Report "the Next Generation of POPs" highlights the widespread presence of lindane and PBDEs; top candidates for addition to the Convention by sampling eggs from around the world and presenting the results prior to COP1.


       Link to the IPEN Global Egg Project here.

    IPEN Fact Sheets POPRC and New POP Candidates:

    A Living Document: Adding New POPs to the POPs Convention -    Download .pdf file HERE.

    Lindane Fact Sheet - Download HERE.

    PBDE Fact Sheet - Download HERE.

    Endosulfan Fact Sheet -    Download .pdf file HERE.

    GET INFORMED ABOUT COP1!

    IPEN GLOBAL ACTIVITIES & AWARENESS RAISING RESOURCES


    GLOBAL EGG SAMPLING PROJECT

    Eggs are a common food in all parts of the world and represent symbols of new life. Like many other foods, eggs are also contaminated with POPs. To demonstrate the importance of uncontaminated food and the global nature of POPs contamination, IPEN participating organizations have sampled chicken eggs in 20 locations in 17 different countries located on five continents. The eggs will be tested for dioxins, furans, PCBs, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), lindane and brominated flame retardants. Eggs should contain none of these chemicals. We should not allow contamination of new life. The results will be presented in 2 global reports (detailed below) and released during the Global Week of Action.

    IPEN asked whether free-range chicken eggs collected near waste incinerators, cement kilns, the metallurgical industry, waste dumps, and chemical production facilities involving chlorine might contain dioxins, PCBs, and HCB. Lindane, and brominated flame retardants were also examined in the eggs. These studies represents the first data about these substances in chicken eggs for many of the countries sampled.

    - The Egg Report: Contamination of chicken eggs from 17 countries by dioxins,

    PCBs and hexachlorobenzene

    - The Next Generation of POPs: PBDEs and Lindane - Download HERE.

    View Hot Spot (sample location) Reports.


    GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION/ EARTH DAY 2005

    NGOs around the world are participating in the Global Week of Action in April centered around Earth Day on April 22. The events will raise awareness about the Keep the Promise campaign and the issues that will be addressed at COP1, just ten days later. Materials for the Global Week of Action are available on the IPEN website www.ipen.org for downloading in a variety of languages including English, Arabic, Spanish, and Russian.

    DIRTY DOZEN MAGAZINE

    Designed and assembled by the Foundation for the Realization of Ideas (Belarus) with inputs from IPEN participating NGOs from around the world on topics relevant to COP1. This publication will be distributed in a variety of languages including English, Russian, and Spanish at COP1. Where art meets POPs.

    (The Dirty Dozen Magazine will be distributed at COP1)



    IPEN ACTIVITIES IN URUGUAY

    IPEN GENERAL ASSEMBLY (APRIL 29- MAY 1 2005)

    Over 50 participating organizations from around the world will convene in Montevideo, Uruguay at to discuss COP1 issues and chart IPEN’s future development for a "toxic free future."

    IPEN and IPEP presentations at COP1

    These will include visual presentations on bulletin boards from the IPEN Global work and Hubs of the International POPs Elimination Project (IPEP) on work in their regions plus a demonstration of the new IPEP global website.

    Joint IPEN-UN Side event Presentation at COP1

    "Effective Civil Society Participation in the Stockholm Convention"

    In cooperation with UNIDO and UNEP, IPEN will present examples of effective civil society participation in the Stockholm Convention


    ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

    Protecting Children, Human Health, Community Monitoring and Body Burdens

    The IPEN Community Monitoring Working Group has produced a series of information resources and fact sheets to raise awareness identifying some of the POPs threats to children, communities and human health.

    These brochures are available for downloading in a variety of languages.

    Specific for COP1, the Community Monitoring Working Group produced the

    Protecting Children from Harmful Chemical Exposure Fact sheet.

    For more on the Community Monitoring Working Group, view the Body Burden Handbook.



    IPEN STOCKHOLM CONVENTION FACT SHEETS

    IPEN has prepared the following one page fact sheets/ briefs to provide simple text on the Stockholm Convention. IPEN encourages you to share this information with your colleagues and communities to raise awareness about the significance about the Stockholm Convention. Specific fact sheets include:

    Stockholm Convention;

    POPs Stockpiles & the Convention;

    DDT & the Convention

    The Next Phase of the Convention

    Why countries should ratify the Convention

    These fact sheets are available in English, Spanish, Arabic and Russian.


    PESTICIDE STOCKPILE HANDBOOK

    Identifying unauthorized storages & stockpiles of obsolete-banned pesticides.

    An overview of activities of non-governmental organizations of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia region which identifies unauthorized storages of banned and obsolete pesticides (available in English and Russian text).

    Available for downloading - .


    For questions please contact:

    IPEN International Coordinator

    Björn Beeler

    BjornBeeler@ipen.org

    tel. +1 (202) 785-8700








    Version: DRAFT 2.0 (June 1, 2006)