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Southeast Asia NGOs Urge Government Action Implementation of POPs stressed





Southeast Asia NGOs Urge Government Action on Toxic Chemicals


Press Release

For Immediate Release: 2 April 2005

Contact: Tara Buakamsri
2 April 2005
Phone: +661 8550013 (mobile)
+6622727100 (fax)


Southeast Asia NGOs Urge Government Action on Toxic Chemicals

As the May 2005 conference on world's worst chemicals nears, NGOs call on Southeast Asian governments to "keep the promise" of reducing toxic pollution.

2 April 2005, Bangkok, Thailand. Representatives of non-government organizations (NGOs) urged Southeast Asian countries to take action on toxic chemicals at an upcoming global meeting on 2-6 May 2005. At issue are persistent organic pollutants or POPs, some of the world's most toxic chemicals that are slated for reduction and elimination under the Stockholm Convention.* NGOs view the Treaty as a promise to take the actions needed to protect public health and environment in the region. Meeting in Bangkok, the NGOs from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand called upon governmental representatives from the region to keep the promise of reduction and elimination of POPs.

Government Action and Public Participation

Thai activist Tara Buakamsri of Greenpeace Southeast Asia said, "It is critical for Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries to take immediate action on POPs to reduce the existing risk to human health as well as to prevent future harmful pollution from occurring. To be able to achieve that, an open and transparent process for public participation is needed"

POPs Pesticides

Among the chemicals on the Stockholm Convention "dirty dozen" list are eight highly toxic pesticides. Christine Wittstock of the Pesticides Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PANAP) based in Penang noted that "POPs pesticides have left a legacy of sick farmers and contaminated food. They must be eliminated quickly and illegal trafficking stopped. Added Wittstock: "We also strongly urge member countries to go beyond the present list of pesticides scheduled for elimination, to include others, such as endosulfan. This highly toxic POP pesticide can have adverse effects on the immune system at low levels of exposure. Endosulfan is a potential endocrine disrupter that can affect reproduction, and has been linked to breast cancer. For developing countries, where nutrient deficiency runs high, people with diets low in protein are more sensitive to its effects."

Unintended By-Product POPS

The "dirty dozen" list also includes the highly toxic dioxins and furans generated as unwanted by-products of incineration and chemical processes involving chlorine. Reacting to the surge of incinerator proposals in the region, Manny Calonzo of the Manila-based Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) asked government planners to switch to cleaner and safer alternatives. "As a replacement for costly and health-threatening incinerators, governments should prioritize and invest in alternative systems for managing discards, such as Zero Waste, that do not yield POPs," he said. "We commend the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for its recent decision to turn away from incinerating waste due to financial and other considerations, and we hope that priority will be given to safe substitutes pursuant to the Stockholm Convention," he added.

NGOs gathered in Bangkok as participating groups of the International POPs Elimination Project (IPEP) a NGO-executed project in collaboration with UN agencies. The groups made plans for increased NGO participation in the country strategies and concrete actions to implement the Stockholm Convention. They agreed to carry out projects and activities that will enhance public involvement in eliminating POPs, stressing that action on POPs must begin now.


Notes:
* The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from this group of toxic chemicals. It entered into force in May 2004. The First Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention will take place in Uruguay on 2 - 6 May 2005

**The "dirty dozen" POPs include, aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene, hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans.

Important weblinks for additional information about IPEP, GAIA, Greenpeace Southeast Asia and PANAP:

IPEP www.oztoxics.org/ipepweb/
GAIA www.no-burn.org
GPSEA www.greenpeacesoutheastasia.org
PANAP www.panap.net




Implementation of POPs stressed



Under the ARNIKA - SDPI collaboration program, Dr.Jindrich Petrlik, Chairperson ARNIKA Czech Republic, visited us from March 11 - 16, 2005. The activities included our visit to hospital waste incinerator sites in Peshawar, Lahore & Islamabad, where besides the discussion with the incinerators operating incharge and his staff regarding non-combustion technologies for hospital waste disposal, ash samples were taken for dioxin/furan analyses. A dump-site in Peshawar was also visited to sample eggs for the global biomonitoring project. A press conference at Islamabad Press Club and a seminar at Environmental Sciences department, University of Peshawar, discussions were held on incineration alternatives, Stockholm Convention and NIP activities with NGOs representatives and officials of NWFP-EPA, Pak-EPA and NIP staff were also held at Peshawar * Islamabad.The press coverage of a panel discussion at SDPI, Islamabad is attached.

Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja
SDPI, Islamabad. Pakistan
www.sdpi.org



The Nation    Tuesday March 15,2005

Implementation of POPs stressed


By LAMIA ZIA

ISLAMABAD -Urging the need to implement Stockholm Convention on Persistent Pollutants (POPS), Environmental experts have warned that (POPS) are injurious to health and can cause birth defects, cancer and tumors.

POPs can be taken in by breathing contaminated air,eating contaminated food, drinking and washing in contaminated water.

This was said by the speakers at a seminar "Air Pollution: Hazardous emissions from incineration and open burning and alternatives to incineration for waste disposal" organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute(SDPI), here on Monday.

In their respective speeches and discussions, the experts urged the policy maker, planers, environmentalists to follow the Stockholm Convention on 		POPS, which is an international treaty designed to end the production and use of some of the world's most poisonous chemicals.

They also stressed the need to raise awareness regarding POPs in the country, where media can play a vital role.

Providing the basic information on POPs, Dr. Mahmood A. Khawaja of SDPI said that POPS are 'chemical compounds or mixture of industrial wastes, pesticides and industrial chemicals and these compounds do not degrade in the environment, by physical or biological precesses, should be taken care of.

He said that the dirty dozens regarded as most dangerous to the environment and human health.

"POPS has contacts with wildlife and humans and these can be intake through breathing contaminated air, eating contaminated food, drinking and washing 		in contaminated water. POPS chemicals accumlation also can be found in fetus and unborn babies in womb (through parent's fats), food web, animal products like meat, fish, milk and predators consuming these foods," he informed.

The main speaker of the seminar, Dr Jindrich Petrlik from ARNIKA of Czech Republic pointed out that the elimination of POPS should be the ultimate goal. He said that many traditional technologies are inappropriate for POPS disposal and in some cases are themselves major sources of POPS production like incineration, landfilling, cement kilns, boilers,plasma,deep well injection.

"Through strategize, separated collection and recycling of municipal waste; waste minimisation strategies, cleaning of waste oils and their recycling in case there are not dangerous toxic substances		 sterilisation of medical waste incineration by the use of autoclaves and microwaves the negative effects of POPS can be minimised or eliminated," he added.

He said that alternative noncombustion technologies are commercially available and come closest to meeting the sprit, intent and obligation of the Stockholm Convention for POPs destruction. However, these technologies should become an excuse for the ongoing production of POPS wastes.

Dr. Noman Fazl Qadir from Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency/ UNDP gave an account of the dioxin profile prepared under national implementation plan (NIP)."NIP is an effort to identify maney sources of doxin which according to the reports are mainly brick kilns, cement kilns and uncontrolled combustion processes such as open burning." he said.






Version: 2.0 (June 1, 2006)