Toxic contamination
The production of synthetic organic chemicals has exploded since the first world war. There are now an estimated 100,000 different synthetic chemicals in use. The health and environmental effects of many of these remain largely unknown and untested. Of these chemical compounds, Greenpeace has prioritised Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs.
POPs are a group of chemicals that are particularly resistant to natural breakdown and are therefore extremely stable and long-lived. Once released into the environment, many POPs persist for years, even decades. Many POPs are also highly toxic and build up (bioaccumulate) in the fatty tissues such as body lipids and organs of animals and humans. POPs end up in our food chain - the main route for human exposure is through food.
These three properties - persistent, toxic and bioaccumulative - make them, arguably, the most problematic chemicals to which natural systems can be exposed. POPs include end-products such as pesticides (e.g. DDT) and industrial chemicals (e.g. PCBs) as well as by-products from industrial and production processes, such as dioxins.
These travel long distances via air currents, therefore endangering people and wildlife all over the world. They are a truly global toxic problem.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recognised the need to adopt a worldwide legally-binding treaty to eliminate POPs and the twelve organochlorine POPs, including dioxins, have been prioritised.
Most of the dirty dozen have been banned in most countries of the world, although use of DDT still occurs in developing countries. There are however many sites, already contaminated with these banned chemicals, that continue to release POPs into the environment.
Today we are faced with a new generation of POP's. Internationally produced chemicals that are used as ingredients in many everyday productss and as a consequence are accumulating at an alarming rate in our bodies. Chemicals like chlorinated paraffins (used in vinyl flooring and bathroom sealants), brominated flame retardants (used in furniture and carpets), phthalates used in soft PVC plastic and cosmetics, nonyl phenol (used in pesticides, glues and paints) and organic tin compounds (found in clothes and credit cards), pose a real threat to our health and environment.
Greenpeace is campaigning for these chemicals, and those that share with them their POP's characteristics, to be phased out by REACH, a new European chemicals policy.
