Persistent organic pollutants — chemical identity and properties

✍ Scribed by Heidelore Fiedler

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 27 KB
• Volume: 102
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1438-7697
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1438-9312(200001)102:1<45::aid-ejlt45>3.0.co;2-b

✦ Synopsis

With this mandate to develop a convention on reduction and elimination of releases of POPs, UNEP Chemicals, initiated under the encouragement of UNEP's Executive Director, Klaus Töpfer, several activities to help the countries to prepare for the negotiations of the convention.

POPs are of concern because they are toxic, they persist in the environment and accumulate in fatty tissues of animals and humans, and they can be transported to remote regions of the globe. Initial action will start with a shortlist of twelve POPs, namely:

• Eight chlorinated pesticides: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, and toxaphene; • Two industrial chemicals: hexachlorobenzene (HCB) 1 and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB);