Dioxin waste
POPs The worst toxics in our environment today are known as POPs, or
persistent organic pollutants. These substances are generally extremely
toxic in small amounts, and because they travel long distances via air
currents, they endanger people and wildlife all over the world. We now
also know that POPs are carried by the atmosphere towards polar
environments where, in the cold conditions, they condense and are
deposited. This mechanism is now believed to account for the surprisingly
high concentrations of POPs present in arctic environments, and in the
indigenous peoples that live there.
The other defining, and extremely worrying, characteristic of POPs is that
they cannot easily be broken down by natural processes - in other words
they are persistent. In some cases, when breakdown does occur, it
creates chemicals that are even more hazardous than the original
substances. Dioxin, a by-product from combustion processes involving
chlorine, is one of the most poisonous POPs known to science.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recently adopted
a worldwide legally binding treaty to eliminate POPs - twelve
organochlorine POPs, including dioxins have been prioritised. Citizens must
push governments and industry to make this a success and begin the new
millennium with a global effort towards Clean Production.
