IPEN Calls for Increased Action on POPs:


Switzerland | Geneva | May 5, 2006



For Immediate Release

5 May 2006

Contact IPEN Co-chairs:

Mariann Lloyd Smith, PhD 0061413621557

Jamidu Katima, PhD, (+255 22) 241-0754

Sluggish Stockholm Convention Meeting Lacks Urgency

(Geneva, Switzerland) The International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) called for accelerated action on POPs after a slow-moving international negotiating meeting. Delegates at the Second Conference of Parties to the Stockholm Convention (COP2) stalled on non-compliance issues and fell short of developing a much needed comprehensive monitoring program that would have generated data on POPs levels in developing countries.

"Developing countries urgently need data on POPs contamination to identify sources and eliminate them," said Professor Jamidu Katima, IPEN Co-chair. "Exposure to us and our children continues while delegates delay action."

Bright spots at the meeting included: the announced intention of the European Union to nominate three new chemicals to the Convention: octabromodiphenyl ether, pentachlorobenzene, and short-chain chlorinated paraffins; and a new transparent process to guide review and revision of a manual for cataloguing releases of dioxins and furans.

"These two steps forward bring us a little closer to the Convention goal," said Dr. Mariann Lloyd-Smith, IPEN Co-Chair.

IPEN reminded delegates of the need for urgent action by serving chocolate and soft drinks at the meeting along with summaries of studies showing the contamination of milk, eggs, butter, chocolate, and soft drinks with DDT, dioxins, lindane, and PCBs. An open letter urged delegates to move rapidly to phase-out POPs since "....every day, families are taking POPs into their bodies in the air they breathe, the food they eat and the beverages they drink."

A successful Stockholm Convention will require adequate financing, clear implementation plans that include civil society participation, and the political will to keep the promise of the Stockholm Convention by eliminating POPs. IPEN will continue efforts to implement the Convention in all regions of the world, and calls upon governments and all stakeholders to do the same.



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