Stockholm Convention
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Stockholm Convention is an international agreement on persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
In 1995, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called for global action to be taken on POPs, which it defined as “chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment”. Following this, the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) and the International Programme for Chemical Safety (IPCS) prepared an assessment of the 12 worst offenders. Known as the dirty dozen, this list includes eight organo-chlorine pesticides: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex and toxaphene; two industrial chemicals: hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) group; and two groups of industrial by-products: dioxins and furans.
When it became clear that these POPs were deadly and that urgent global action was needed, UNEP’s Governing Council created an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to prepare an internationally legally binding instrument that would “point the way to a future free of dangerous POPs”. The result of the INC’s efforts is the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. This was presented to delegates representing governments from around the world on 23rd May 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Convention outlaws the dirty dozen and also establishes a system to track additional substances that can be classified as POPs, to prevent the development of new problem chemicals.
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