ENVIRONMENT: List of Dangerous Chemicals Keeps Growing

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jorge Pina

ROME, Jul 15 1999 (IPS) - Representatives from more than 100 countries met in Rome this week to implement a new international trade accord on pesticides and other dangerous chemicals.

At the meeting, being held at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) delegates focused on establishing a mechanism for the incorporation of new substances that should be kept on a “watch list.”

These products should be subjected to stricter control and eventually banned completely, environmental experts said at news conference, organised by the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).

Six new substances (binapacryl, bromacil, ethylene dichloride, ethyl oxide, maleic hydroxide and toxaphene) meanwhile were added to the existing watch list, which numbers five industrial chemical substances and 22 pesticides.

The watch list deals with chemical substances that are being manufactured and sold despite the fact that they cause serious damage to human health and the environment.

It was established within the framework of the Rotterdam Agreement on Information Procedures and Prior Consent for Certain Chemical Substances and Dangerous Pesticides in International Trade.

The Agreement was adopted in September 1998 and, so far, has been signed by 60 nations. Once it has been ratified by 50 parliaments, it will enter into effect.

However, the signatories already have agreed to voluntarily comply with the treaty in the interests of protecting human health and the environment from the harmful effects of chemical substances.

The Rotterdam Agreement defends human health, as well as the environment, in developing countries, where there may be unacceptable exposure to pesticides and industrial chemical substances.

The rule bans exports of prohibited chemical substances or dangerous pesticides, or imposes severe restrictions, unless there is the explicit consent of the importing country.

The treaty also includes the formulae for dangerous pesticides, so that they can be used more safely by farmers in developing nations.

If a country bans the importation of dangerous compounds, it is also obliged to ban the national production of those compounds for domestic consumption.

The developing world has provided the fastest growing markets for these substances, according to FAO, the U.N’s oldest agency.