5/21/14

1
1
The Law on Hazardous
Substances and Pollutants
Stockholm Convention
Camena Guneratne
Dept of Legal
Studies
Open University 2
Stockholm Convention on
Persistent Organic Pollutants,
adopted 23 May 2001; entered
into force 17 May 2004
3
What are POPs?
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are a
group of chemicals that are very toxic and
can cause cancer and other adverse health
effects. POPs are persistent in the
environment and travel vast distances via air
and water. POPs are organic chemical
compounds which bioaccumulate in animals
and humans. These pollutants are primarily
the products and by-products of human
industrial processes.
4
The U.S. EPA explains that POPs
include a range of substances
including
1. Intentionally produced chemicals currently or
once used in agriculture, disease control,
manufacturing, or industrial processes.
Examples include PCBs, which have been
useful in a variety of industrial applications
(e.g., in electrical transformers and large
capacitors, as hydraulic and heat exchange
fluids, and as additives to paints and
lubricants) and DDT, which is still used to
control mosquitoes that carry malaria in some
parts of the world
and
5
2.Unintentionally produced chemicals,
such as dioxins, that result from some
industrial processes and from
combustion (for example, municipal and
medical waste incineration and
backyard burning of trash).
6
The characteristics of POPs
POPs are persistent in the environment. They
resist degradation or breakdown through
physical, chemical, or biological processes;
POPs generally are semi-volatile. They
evaporate relatively slowly but when they
enter the air, they travel long distances on air
currents. They return to earth in rain and
snow in the colder areas of the globe,
resulting in their accumulation in regions such
as the Arctic, thousands of kilometres away
from their original sources;
5/21/14
2
7
POPs generally have low water solubility
(they do not dissolve readily in water) and
high lipid (fat) solubility (they do dissolve
easily in fats and oils). Persistent substances
with these properties bioaccumulate in fatty
tissues of living organisms. In the
environment, concentrations of these
substances can increase by factors of many
thousands or millions as they move up the
food chain; and
8
POPs have the potential to injure humans and
other organisms even at the very low
concentrations at which they are now found in the
environment, wildlife and humans. Some POPs in
extraordinarily small amounts can disrupt normal
biological functions, including the activity of
natural hormones and other chemical
messengers, triggering a cascade of potentially
harmful effects.
Perhaps the most commonly known POP is DDT
(Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane), a synthetic
pesticide.
9 10
Why are POPs dangerous?
Because their impacts are found far from the point
at which the substances were originally used.
Industrial and agricultural chemicals known as
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have been
found in high concentrations in Arctic humans and
wildlife. They are transported to the Arctic via the
atmosphere. Levels are highest in the fat of
animals high in the food chain. A significant
number of Aboriginal northerners, who depend on
these species for subsistence, exceed the
recommended consumption guidelines.
11
POPs can enter Alaska and the Arctic in
several ways, too. The first indication that
Arctic pollution could originate elsewhere
came during the 1950s, when pilots noticed a
haze in the North American Arctic that was
eventually traced to sources in the lower
latitudes. Since then, scientists have
discovered that POPs can reach Arctic
regions via air, water, and, to a lesser extent,
migratory species.
..
12
Due to global wind patterns, Alaska can
receive POPs from both east Asia and
northern Europe. POPs can also travel in
rivers from southeast and central Asia into the
Pacific Ocean, where water currents flow into
the Arctic Ocean.
5/21/14
3
13
Bio-magnification
POPs work their way through the food chain
by accumulating in the body fat of living
organisms and becoming more concentrated
as they move from one creature to another.
This process is known as biomagnification.
When contaminants found in small amounts
at the bottom of the food chain biomagnify,
they can pose a significant hazard to
predators that feed at the top of the food
chain. This means that even small releases of
POPs can have significant impacts.

14
Biomagnification in Action: A 1997 study by
the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment
Programme, called Arctic Pollution Issues: A
State of the Arctic Environment Report, found
that caribou in Canadas Northwest Territories
had as much as 10 times the levels of PCBs
as the lichen on which they grazed; PCB
levels in the wolves that fed on the caribou
were magnified nearly 60 times as much as
the lichen.
15 16
It is important to note that the transmission of
POPs through breast milk to babies, therefore
endangering future generations, has been
specifically identified as a concern in the
Stockholm Convention. The Preamble to the
Convention states that Parties are Aware of
the health concerns, especially in developing
countries, resulting from local exposure to
persistent organic pollutants, in particular
impacts upon women and, through them,
upon future generations.
17
Impacts on the environment
The U.S. EPA states that Behavioral
abnormalities and birth defects in fish, birds,
and mammals in and around the Great Lakes,
for example, led scientists to investigate
POPs exposures in human populations.
18
The problem of POPs
Use of POPs increased after World War II.
Like in the case of chemicals, the problem of
POPs in caused by a powerful industrial lobby
supported by their governments.
This is not confined to developed countries.
Countries such as India and China also
manufacture chemicals. India continues to
manufacture DDT.
Developed countries are more willing to
control POPs as they are also affected by its
transboundary impacts.
5/21/14
4
19
The aims of the Convention
Recognises that persistent organic
pollutants possess toxic properties,
resist degradation, bioaccumulate and
are transported, through air, water and
migratory species, across international
boundaries and deposited far from their
place of release, where they
accumulate in terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems.
20
Recognizes two specific
concerns
the health concerns, especially in developing
countries, resulting from local exposure to
persistent organic pollutants, in particular
impacts upon women and, through them,
upon future generations,
the Arctic ecosystems and indigenous
communities are particularly at risk because
of the biomagnification of persistent organic
pollutants and that contamination of their
traditional foods is a public health issue.
21
POPs are covered in all
three conventions
Basel
Rotterdam
Stockholm
22
Based on two principles
The precautionary principle - that precaution
underlies the concerns of all the Parties and is
embedded within this Convention.
Polluter pays principle - Principle 16 of the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development
which states that national authorities should
endeavour to promote the internalization of
environmental costs and the use of economic
instruments, taking into account the approach that
the polluter should, in principle, bear the cost of
pollution, with due regard to the public interest and
without distorting international trade and
investment.
23
Acknowledges situation of
developing countries
the circumstances and particular
requirements of developing countries, in
particular the least developed among them,
and countries with economies in transition,
especially the need to strengthen their
national capabilities for the management of
chemicals, including through the transfer of
technology, the provision of financial and
technical assistance and the promotion of
cooperation among the Parties.
24
Convention is based on
several premises
Precautionary principle
Elimination of POPs - There is a significant
difference between the Stockholm
Convention on the one hand and the
Rotterdam and Basel Conventions on the
other, in that the former imposes a prohibition
on trade in POPs except for two specified
purposes, and its ultimate goal is to eliminate
POPs completely.
5/21/14
5
25
In regard to intentional production and use,
the Convention, on adoption, dealt with the
twelve worst POPs, popularly known as the
dirty dozen. They include Aldrin, Chlordane,
DDT, Dieldrin, Dioxins, Endrin, Furans,
Hexachlorobenzene, Heptachlor, Mirex,
PCBs and Toxaphene. These substances are
included in either Annex A (Elimination) or
Annex B (Restriction). There is provision to
continue adding more chemicals to the lists.
26
Measures to cease intentional
production of POPs
(1) Each Party shall:
(a) Prohibit and/or take the legal and
administrative measures necessary to eliminate:
(i)Its production and use of the chemicals listed in Annex
A subject to the provisions of that Annex; and
(ii)Its import and export of the chemicals listed in Annex
A in accordance with the provisions of paragraph
2; and
(b)Restrict its production and use of the chemicals
listed in Annex B in accordance with the provisions
of that Annex.
27
Measures to prevent
unintentional production
In regard to unintentional releases to POPs due to
anthropogenic activities (Article 5), each State Party
is required to at a minimum take the following
measures to reduce the total releases derived from
anthropogenic sources of each of the chemicals
listed in Annex C, with the goal of their continuing
minimization and, where feasible, ultimate
elimination. In this regard they shall develop
actions plans, or where appropriate, regional or
sub-regional plans within two years of the entry into
force of the Convention to further this objective.
28
Other strategies
Eliminate and dispose of old stockpiles and
equipment containing POPs
The transition to safer alternatives rather than
trying to mitigate the effects of the substances
currently in existence.
International co-operation to eventually
eliminate all POPs.
29
Success of the Convention
More successful than Basel and Rotterdam
Its goal is elimination of the chemicals and
not merely regulation of the trade. Since
many chemicals come under all three
conventions, this is important.
May 2009 meeting will consider the listing of
nine more chemicals for banning and
elimination.
However, now some developing countries are
still opposing effective action.