GREENPEACE TAKES GLOBAL ACTION AGAINST SOURCES OF POPS POISONS AND URGES GOVERNMENTS TO DO THE SAME

21 May 2001

Stockholm, Sweden: Greenpeace activists started a series of direct actions today against industries around the world that are still releasing toxic poisons called persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into the environment. The actions began as over 120 governments convened in Stockholm to formally adopt and sign the first legally binding, global treaty to eliminate POPs because of the unacceptable environmental damage they cause and the danger they pose to human health.

"The POPs treaty presents an historic turning point as it requires governments to stop industries using the environment and human health as a testing ground for their devastating chemicals," said Kevin Stairs of Greenpeace. "But it will take radical industrial change to protect us from these insidious chemicals that are poisoning our water, our food and our future. It has taken years to reach this agreement, yet every day these poisons are poured into our environment, the toll they take worsens. It's time to see action, not words," he added.

At 6.00am this morning, Greenpeace activists in the Lebanon and Turkey blocked clinical and hazardous waste incinerators that are releasing cancer causing dioxins and other POPs. In Thailand, about 100 local people and Greenpeace activists demonstrated outside the headquarters of the Japan Bank for International Co-operation and demanded that it stops funding and exporting incinerators to South East Asia.

In Sweden, activists continued to protest at the 'Cementa' cement kiln on Gotland Island demanding that it stops incinerating waste. They have been blocking the conveyor belt that carries waste into the incinerator oven for the past six days. This morning, they stopped all other routes of transporting waste into the incinerator by blocking the plant's pump station that transports hazardous waste into the oven and occupying tanks that contain hazardous waste on the site (1).

Greenpeace will continue to take direct action against POPs sources this week and will continue to call on governments to act immediately on the commitments they are making and to start drawing up national action plans outlining the industrial changes they will make to stop the manufacture, use and release of all POPs into the environment (2).

The treaty aims to eliminate all POPs and lists twelve for priority action, the so-called 'dirty dozen'. It also aims to stop new ones being introduced to the marketplace. The dirty dozen include intentionally produced chemicals, such as pesticides and PCBs, as well as by-products, such as furans and cancer causing dioxins. These are still routinely released as unwanted by-products of industries that use chlorine and from waste incinerators. Greenpeace considers dioxin elimination to be a key demand of the Stockholm Convention.

Most of the dirty dozen POPs pesticides are already banned in many countries, but according to a new Greenpeace report, half a million tonnes remain in obsolete stockpiles around the world, mostly in developing countries (3). Almost 30 per cent of the 50,000 metric tonnes in Africa are those listed under the treaty for priority action. So far, of these, only 2,000 metric tonnes have been removed and returned to Europe. Pesticide manufacturers - Dupont, Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Ciba Geigy, Rhone Poulenc, Shell, Sumitomo and Zeneca - that collectively have an annual turnover of over USD 30 billion have, so far, paid less than 2% towards the cost of this removal. The rest of the USD 30 million spent so far on eliminating stockpiles in Africa has been paid by governments and aid agencies in Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany and the US.

"In many communities, often in the poorest regions of Africa, these stockpiles still pose a real and everyday threat. These industries have historic and collective responsibility for them because they invented, produced and marketed them," said Andreas Bernstorff, Greenpeace expert on pesticide stockpiles. "If this treaty is to be worth the paper it's written on, these multinationals must put some of their vast profits into cleaning up the mess they have made," he added.

Greenpeace also warned that the POPs treaty must not inadvertently promote incineration, which is often touted as a method by which to dispose of POPs stockpiles. Incineration, as the new treaty states, does not destroy POPs but is, in itself, one of the most significant sources of by-product POPs.

"The POPs treaty has shattered the myth that incineration is a solution for today's waste problems," said Stairs. "Now it's time to use the safer alternative methods of POPs destruction that are readily available, tried and tested to protect present and future generations from cancers, endometriosis and hormone disruption and birth defects," he concluded (4).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
For further information on persistent organic pollutants and the impacts they are having on public health and the environment see the new Greenpeace report "Toxic-free future - time to act!" Footage and stills are available on request.
For further information or to arrange interviews call:
Matilda Bradshaw, Greenpeace International press, + 31 6 535 04701(m)
Wytze van der Naald, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner, + 31 6 270 00059

(2) A new Greenpeace dioxin sources inventory

(3)Greenpeace report on POPs in Africa

(4) Greenpeace briefings on alternative destruction technologies