Washington, D.C. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced that President Bush is submitting the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) to the U.S. Senate for its advice and consent to ratification. additional legislation that would amend existing U.S. laws needed to implement POPs and two other related treaties also is being submitted to Congress today. President Bush endorsed the treaty in a Rose Garden Ceremony on April 19, 2001. The treaty was signed by Whitman on behalf of the United States in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 23, 2001.
During last year's Rose Garden ceremony, President Bush said "[T]his treaty shows the possibilities for cooperation among all parties to our environmental debates. Developed nations cooperated with less-developed nations. Businesses cooperated with environmental groups. And now, a Republican administration will continue and complete the work of a Democratic administration."
The Stockholm Convention targets twelve toxic chemicals which persist in the environment for long periods of time, accumulate in the food chain, and travel great distances. The twelve POPs include certain pesticides, industrial chemicals and unintended byproducts of combustion such as DDT, PCBs and dioxin.
"Concerted global action addressing these twelve toxic chemicals and pesticides will provide significant protection to the health of many Americans, particularly Alaskan residents and those who live around the Great Lakes," said Whitman. "Taking strong steps to reduce these chemicals will also have significant benefits for the health of millions of people throughout the world, especially in developing nations," she continued.
The legislative package will implement three important international environmental agreements that are essential to protecting environmental and human health in the United States and the world: The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, (signed in Stockholm, May 23, 2001); the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (signed in Rotterdam, September 11, 1998); and the Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants (signed in Aarhus on June 24, 1998). The legislative package submitted to Congress also includes amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
The Stockholm Convention is intended to eliminate or restrict the production, use and/or release of twelve chemicals that, due to their persistence in the environment, can affect human health throughout the globe, regardless of the location of their use. The Convention obligates all participating countries to take measures to eliminate or restrict the production, use, and trade of intentionally produced POPs; to develop action plans to address the release of byproduct POPs, such as using best available techniques to reduce emissions of POPs from new sources; and to address the safe handling and disposal of POPs stockpiles and wastes. Background documents are available at: www.epa.gov/pesticides.
