NEW CONVENTION TO BAN TOXIC CHEMICALS MARKS TURNING POINT FOR INDUSTRY

23 May 2001

Stockholm, Sweden - Greenpeace welcomed the birth of the Stockholm Convention to eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs), signed by over 90 governments in Sweden today. The new global treaty marks a turning point for industry and for environmental policy as it acknowledges, for the first time, that releases of toxic chemicals cannot be controlled but their must be eliminated in order to protect public health and the environment.

"This Convention offers a genuine opportunity for governments to rid the world of these toxic poisons. But the scale of the POPs crisis must not be underestimated. Cases of POPs related diseases such as cancers, endocrine disruption and endometriosis will continue to increase unless governments act on the commitments made today and stop all industrial sources of these and all other insidious poisons immediately," said Greenpeace political advisor, Kevin Stairs.

Greenpeace is taking ongoing direct action against POPs sources around the world this week. The actions serve to stress which industrial practices are required to go if the Stockholm Convention is to be implemented effectively (1). To eliminate POPs, waste incineration must be banned and all industries must stop using chlorine as part of their production or manufacturing processes.

These include PVC plastic manufacturing, the use of chlorine compounds in pulp and paper bleaching, chlorinated solvents production, chlorinated pesticides production and chlorine production. Significantly, the Stockholm Convention will also stop new chemicals with POPs characteristics being created and marketed by industry and will prevent the mistake of replacing one POP chemical with another.

This week, Greenpeace has given particular focus to some of the worst industrial offenders around the world that routinely release POPs into the environment as by-products: PVC plastic manufacturers and waste incinerators. The latter has been identified under the new treaty as major sources of cancer causing dioxins and other POPs. (2)

"Every day that governments allow these industries to operate and release POPs poisons, levels of cancer causing dioxins in human fat and in mothers' breast milk in communities living near or far from the sources will continue to rise. Now governments know the devastation these chemicals are causing they must act in the interest of public health and the environment. And the time for action is now," concluded Stairs.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
For further information contact:
Matilda Bradshaw, Greenpeace International media + 31 6 535 04701
Wytze van der Naald, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner + 31 6 270 00059

(1) This week, Greenpeace took action against incineration of waste in Sweden, the Lebanon, Turkey, UK, Thailand, Japan, Argentina and the Czech Republic. In Turkey and Lebanon the incinerators operated illegally and, in the UK, emissions are found to frequently breach legal limits. Many of the actions attracted overwhelming support from the local communities and workers who are very concerned about their health. Actions in Sweden and the UK are ongoing.

The Swedish minister for the Environment has failed to stop the burning of waste at the Cementa cement kiln on Gotland Island this week, which is in total contradiction to the commitments he is making under the Stockholm Convention today.

Activists in the Netherlands took action against a dioxin hotspot resulting from the production of PVC plastic. PVC production has also inflicted serious dioxin contamination on other countries. High dioxin levels have been found in the blood of communities living near PVC industries in Mossville, Louisiana and the Venice Lagoon is highly contaminated with dioxins from PVC production. PVC is thought to have the highest dioxin formation risk of any single material.

See www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/globalactions.html for more details.

Images of the actions are available on request.

(2) A recent Greenpeace report "Incineration and Human Health" shows that incinerators, including modern incinerators, have been linked to serious health impacts. For full copies of the report see www.greenpeace.org/~toxics