Listen to the podcast.

Stops for Pops

Two years ago, a dozen of the world’s most persistent chemicals were banned for use in many countries around the world at an international convention in Stockholm. Left off the list, however, were numerous other chemicals that take years to break down, causing serious harm to people and wildlife.

The Stockholm Convention of 2004 banned the world’s 12 most dangerous “persistent organic pollutants,” or POPs, from production and use. The so-called “dirty dozen” list, which includes pesticides such as DDT, does not include many other toxic chemicals, however, such as the pesticide lindane or brominated flame retardants (PBDEs, for example). These flame retardants are found in many common household products, such as sofas and television sets, as well as in clothing, such as children’s sleepwear.

Scientists and environmental health experts have long lobbied to ban or remove POPs because research shows they cause cancer and damage to the human nervous, immune, and reproductive systems. They also persist in the environment for many years and can travel long distances. That means that even people who live far away from where the chemicals are made or used, such as the Inuit tribe in the Arctic, are just as much at risk for exposure as those who live near where the chemicals are made, used, and/or stored.. Studies have shown that the Inuit, as well as the whales and fish that they eat, carry high levels of POPs in their bodies.

POPs build up in the fatty tissues of animals and humans, so that the higher up the food chain you are, the higher the levels of POPs you will have in your system. Several “body burden” studies have found high levels of these chemicals in the blood of people around the world.

A POPs Review Committee was established last year to evaluate additional chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants and others, for possible addition to the POPs treaty at a later date.

For more information on the Stockholm convention and POPs treaty, go to: http://www.pops.int/ or the UNEP web site.

To read about body burden, visit http://www.commonweal.org/programs/brc/

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org or www.healthandenvironment.org