Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are hazardous chemicals that threaten human health and the planet’s ecosystems. POPs remain intact for a long time, widely distributed throughout the environment they accumulate and magnify in living organisms through the food chain and are toxic to both humans and wildlife.
POPs have been widely used throughout the supply chain, in all kinds of products including pesticides, in industry processes and can also be released into the environment unintentionally. Some POPs banned decades ago (mirex, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene) are still detected at elevated level around us today as these chemicals were made with the intention to last ‘forever’. With global chemical sales projected to grow to euro 6.6 trillion by 2030, and so many new chemicals and materials continuously being designed and released on the market - many of which could eventually become a POP - POPs are an increasing threat.
Why do POPs concern me?
Humans are exposed to POPs in a variety of ways, mainly through the food we eat, the air we breathe, in the outdoors, indoors and at the workplaces. Many products we use in our daily lives used to contain and/or may still contain POPs, which have been added to improve product characteristics, such as flame retardant or waterproofing.
Should I be worried by POPs?
Scientific evidence shows that long‐term exposure – to certain compounds under certain conditions – even to low levels of POPs can lead to increased cancer risk, reproductive disorders, alteration of the immune system, neurobehavioral impairment, endocrine disruption, genotoxicity and increased birth defects.
A global treaty to protect human health and the environment from POPs
Entered into force in 2004, the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants calls for reduction or elimination of releases of POPs globally. Parties to the Convention commit to not produce or use the chemicals listed in its annexes. New chemicals get added regularly. To date, 185 countries have ratified the Stockholm Convention and 34 POPs are listed as17 pesticides, 15 industrial chemicals, 7 unintentional by-products (one POP can be classified under more than one category).
Interactive timeline of POPs listed under the Stockholm Convention
The letter(s) in brackets indicate in which annex(es) the POP is listed [A = Elimination, B = Restriction, C = Unintentional production].
Science for evidence-based policy, action and measuring progress
Availability of data, information and knowledge on exposure to POPs is essential for a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. UNEP ensures data is collected and analyzed for informed decision making and effective actions at the national, regional and global level.
The Stockholm Convention sets a process to measure how effective it is at protecting humans and the environment from POPs. The Global Monitoring Plan is a framework for the collection of comparable data on the presence of POPs in all regions, in order to identify changes in concentrations over time and provide information on their regional and global environmental transport. Concentration of POPs are measured worldwide in “core matrices” air, human milk and water as well as in matrices of national interest (e.g., fish, butter, sediment…).
What does my country do to POPs?
Parties to the Stockholm Convention are required to prepare a plan on how they are going to implement their obligations under the Convention and make efforts to put such plan into operation. The National Implementation Plan (NIP) is a part of the sustainable development strategy of each country. The NIP is a dynamic document to be reviewed periodically and updated as new POPs get listed under the Convention. The plan covers sources of POPs, inventories, releases of POPs estimates, evaluation of the national laws, policies and strategies set in place, as well as awareness raising to the danger of POPs.
Prevention of regrettable substitutions is essential to avoid continuous addition of new POPs
During the POPs monitoring, newly listed POPs that were introduced as substitutions to old POPs have been detected at elevated levels globally including in small islands and developing states. So far, there is no trend information available for the newly listed POPs. Most countries, including developed countries, still have difficulties with analysing and soundly manage POPs and particularly new POPs or their regrettable substitutions.
Results of the monitoring show presence of POPs in developing countries - many of which are not producers or users - emphasizing the fact that POPs are a global issue. This further indicate that the continuous creation and usage of new POPs is adding additional burdens to these countries with limited capacity for monitoring, legislation and sound management.
Safer alternatives to POPs
One of the essential aims of the Stockholm Convention is to support the transition to safer alternatives. Some of the POPs targeted by the Convention are already virtually obsolete. Their toxic effects became obvious early on and they have been banned or severely restricted in many countries for years or even decades, even before the Convention was adopted. Replacement chemicals and techniques are in place. The remaining challenge is to find any leftover stocks and prevent them from being used.
But with other POPs the transition to safer alternatives will require more effort. Alternatives may be more expensive and their manufacture and use more complicated. To avoid regrettable substitution, Parties need to make sure the alternatives do not have the same properties as the POPs they are replacing.
The Stockholm Convention cannot simply to say “NO” to its target list of POPs, it must also help governments find a way to say “Yes” to replacement solutions.
Knowledge generated on POPs is critical to address other global challenges such as plastics, air pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.
WHY POPS . GMP OVERVIEW . DATA GENERATION . CAPACITY BUILDING . INTERLAB . GMP HISTORY
