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Dirty dozen chemical treaty takes effect
without U.S.
By Joan Lowy - Scripps Howard News Service
May 17, 2004
- A treaty that bans or severely
restricts 12 of the world's most environmentally dangerous chemicals, known as
the dirty dozen, went into effect Monday without the United States.
Chemicals covered by the
agreement, known as the Stockholm Convention, include polychlorinated biphenyls,
or PCBs, used to insulate electric transformers and as additives in plastics and
paint. Other chemicals in the treaty include pesticides such as DDT.
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Note from the NPA: Chemicals considered for addition to the treaty
include
the pesticide lindane, which has been banned in some countries but is
still
used in the United States to treat head lice in children. |
All the chemicals are
characterized by their ability to remain in the environment for years or decades
with little erosion and their tendency to accumulate in the fat tissue of
animals and people.
Wind and water currents have
spread the chemicals to even the most remote corners of the planet. Every person
in the world carries traces of at least some of the dirty dozen within their
body, including children who received doses of the chemicals while in the womb.
The United States and most
Western countries banned PCBs, DDT and other substances on the list in the
1970s, but some are still in use in developing countries.
"The Stockholm Convention will
save lives and protect the natural environment, particularly in the poorest
communities and countries, by banning the production and use of some of the most
toxic chemicals known to humankind," United Nations' Environment Program
executive director Klaus Toepfer said.
Negotiations on the treaty were
completed in 2001. On Feb. 17, France became the 50th country to adopt
implementing legislation, triggering a 90-day countdown for the treaty to become
binding. So far, 59 countries have ratified the treaty.
President Bush signed the treaty
at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden three months after he took office,
noting that the pollutants covered by the treaty have been "linked to
developmental defects, cancer and other grave problems in humans and animals."
However, the administration has
since raised concerns that a key feature of the agreement - the treaty's
mechanism for the future addition of new chemicals to the list of banned
substances - might undermine national sovereignty. Implementing legislation has
stalled in Congress.
A meeting of the countries party
to the convention is scheduled for next May in Uruguay. If the United States is
not a party to the agreement before then, "it will put our chemical industry at
a disadvantage," said World Wildlife Fund vice president Brooks Yeager, a former
State Department official who was the chief U.S. negotiator on the treaty.
"Chemicals that may be added to the treaty in the future may include chemicals
that are manufactured by U.S. companies."
Greg Lebedev, president of the
American Chemistry Council, a trade association for the chemical industry, said
Congress should "act to assure that the U.S. can join the international
community in implementing a treaty it helped bring about."
The pesticide DDT is the only
chemical on the dirty dozen list not fully banned by the treaty. The agreement
gives 25 countries, most of them in Africa, permission to continue to use DDT
under limited circumstances to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Chemicals considered possible
candidates for addition to the treaty include certain brominated flame
retardants that have been found in the breast milk of American and European
women and the pesticide lindane, which has been banned in some countries but is
used in the United States to treat head lice in children.
Contact Joan Lowy at lowyj@shns.com
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com |
