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POPs Issue and Effects to Human Health Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are toxic substances composed of organic (carbon-based) chemical compounds and mixtures. POPs are products and by-products of human industry that are relatively recent in origin. In the decades of this century, pollutants with these harmful properties were virtually non-existent in the food and in environment.
Today, ordinary food supplies in most regions of the world, especially
fish, meat and diary products, tend to be contaminated by POPs. Both people
and wildlife everywhere in the world, carry burdens of POPs at near levels
that can — often — cause injury to human health and to entire
ecosystems. Because they generally have low water solubility and high lipid (fat) solubility, they tend to bioaccumulate in fatty tissues of living organisms. In the environment, concentrations of these substances can magnify by factors of many thousands as they move up the food chain. POPs include some naturally occurring substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) but whose inputs to the biosphere have dramatically increased as a result of human activities including oil and gas extraction, the combustion of fuel (including vehicles) and from the steel and non-ferrous industries. However, the group of POPs that has attracted the greatest attention is synthetic organochlorine (i.e. carbon-based chemicals also containing the halogens, chlorine, bromine, fluorine, iodine,). Of these, the majority are organochlorines. It is estimated that a staggering 11,000 organochlorines are now in use around the world. They include pesticides such as DDT, Chlordane, Heptachlor, Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin, Toxaphene and Mirex; solvents such as perchlorethylene and chemicals with multiple uses such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PBCs). Also included are organochlorine by-products such as hexachlorobenzene, dioxins and furans. 2. What are the Effects to Human Health of POPs ? Scientists have observed a range of health injuries in wildlife exposed to POPs: •
Reproductive failure and population declines; Good evidence associates human exposure to specific POPs’ health effects like: •
Cancers and tumors; 3. What is the Stockholm Convention ? The Stockholm Convention on POPs is an international treaty among countries aimed at protecting human health and the environment from POPs. The said Convention is designed to commit governments to proceed towards control and bans on the production, generation and use of a pernicious group of pesticides and industrial chemicals and emissions of unintended by-products and promotes and requires appropriate substitution with cleaner products, materials, processes, and practices. It will likewise ensure the environmentally sound management and disposal of POPs waste. On May 23, 2001, 91 governments, including the Philippines, were signatories to the Convention, in Stockholm, Sweden. The Philippine Senate has already ratified the Stockholm Convention, making it in effect in the country beginning May 27, 2004. It will come into effect when 50 countries have ratified it. Meanwhile, countries have agreed to implement voluntarily the provisions of the Convention on an interim basis.
The Government of the Philippines has long recognized the problems attributed to toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes. As early as 1990, the Philippine Congress enacted Republic Act No. 6969 or the “Toxic Substances, Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act.” This Act mandates the regulation, restriction or prohibition of the importation, manufacture, processing, sale, distribution, use and disposal of chemical substances and mixtures that present unreasonable risk and/or injury to health and the environment. It also deals with the entry, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes. Another landmark legislation was passed 1999, which is Republic Act 8749 entitled “Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999.” Two basic features in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Act (DENR Administrative Order 2000-81) govern POPs. Rule XLI of the Act provides for the development of an inventory list of all sources of POPs in the country and the design of a national government program on the reduction and elimination of POPs. Again, Rule XXVII, Section I also of the same law provides for the “ban on incineration” as a response to address the adverse effects of combustion fumes emitted by the burning of domestic, hospital and hazardous wastes. Instead, it advocates the non-burn technology as an alternative. The Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources principally coordinates the implementation of the aforecited laws.
For details, please contact: The POPs
Management Office www.emb.gov.ph
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