Experts from China and Japan met yesterday in Beijing to promote
international efforts to eliminate a dozen hazardous chemicals known as
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
"By ratifying the Stockholm Convention, China has committed itself to
eliminate the production, distribution and use of POPs," said Dr Zhang Qingfeng,
who is with the Stockholm Convention Implementation Office of State
Environmental Protection Administration.
The Stockholm Convention on POPs was signed by about 150 countries, including
China, in May, 2001 and took effect on May 17 this year.
China's top legislature ratified the convention at the 10th meeting of the
Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), which closed in
Beijing in late June.
The convention signaled the start of an ambitious international effort to rid
the world of POPs. It aims to initially control a dozen of the pollutants.
"China has already had co-operation on POPs control with Canada, Italy, the
United States and other international organizations, mainly in the field of
replacing POPs with increasingly safe and effective alternatives," said Zhang,
who is looking forward to a new co-operative relationship with Japan.
POPs are highly toxic chemical substances that threaten human health and the
environment.
For decades, they have killed and made people and animals sick by causing
cancer and damaging nervous, reproductive and immune systems. They are also
believed to cause birth defects.
Well-known POPs in China are DDT, used to combat malaria, Chlordane and Mirex
in termite control and PCBs, used as electrical insulators in transformers,
capacitors and other electrical equipment.
It is an urgent task for China to develop environmentally safer alternatives
to pesticides and address PCB problems, yet the elimination of POPs requires
great input.
The lack of professionals and the funds to develop techniques, and
insufficient public education are bottle necks for substituting, treating and
reducing POPs, said Zhang.
Zhang called for the improvement of policy and legal systems, and basic
scientific study, as well as the establishment of a national co-operative
system.
