Pesticides
Pesticides, chemical preparations for destroying plant, fungal, or animal pests,
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Heavy Metals
Heavy metals are a loosely defined subset of elements with metallic properties and relatively high densities or relative atomic weights, some of which are dangerous to health and / or the environment.
IPEN's work on heavy metals currently focuses on lead (specifically, eliminating lead from paint) and mercury (including sampling of mercury in fish and human hair and work on the international mercury treaty), although IPEN has also produced data about arsenic and cadmium via product testing with a x-ray fluorescence machine.
What Are POPs?
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of highly hazardous chemical pollutants that are recognized as a serious, global threat to human health and to ecosystems. POPs are substances that specifically:
Industrial Chemicals
Industrial chemicals are chemicals that are developed for use in the industrial processing of chemicals. Some industrial chemicals are only used in industrial production processes while many others are used as ingredients in the commercial products that appear in consumer markets.
Waste (By-Products)
Some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are by-products that were produced unintentionally and released to the environment during combustion or during some chemical processes. For example, dioxins, furans, alpha-HCH, and beta-HCH are never intentionally produced (except for laboratory purposes). Dioxin, for example, one of the original "Dirty Dozen" of the Stockholm Convention, is typically produced during incineration. Two others, PCBs and HCB, are produced both intentionally and unintentionally.
Lead At-a-Glance
Exposure to lead is extremely harmful to children and adults—the health effects are generally irreversible and can have lifelong impact. Most vulnerable are unborn fetuses, and a pregnant woman can transfer lead to her developing child. Evidence of reduced intelligence from childhood lead exposure has caused the World Health Organization to recognize “lead-caused mental retardation” as a disease.
POPs At-a-Glance
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are a group of toxic chemicals—including some pesticides and by-products of industry—that remain in the environment, in food chains, and in human bodies for many years, causing endocrine disruptions and other health problems.