Stockholm Convention
The Stockholm Convention is a United Nations treaty formally adopted in May 2001 to eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) worldwide.
POPs are toxins that persist in the environment, and may bioaccumulate and magnify higher up the food chain.
The Stockholm Convention is the first global agreement ever to seek to ban an entire class of chemicals because of their effects on human health. Chemicals covered include toxic dioxins, PCBs, and pesticides such as DDT.
The convention specifically exempts DDT from the same controls as the other POPs that it covers. DDT is permitted for disease vector control, while maintaining a long-term goal of its elimination. Countries that need to will be allowed to continue using DDT against malaria, until effective and affordable alternatives are available to them.
From early 1999, the UN Environmental Program was subject to heavy lobbying from the World Wildlife Fund on the one hand, and a coalition of right-wing, free-market think-tanks on the other.
References
- UNEP, Stockholm Convention website
- Physicians for Social Responsibility, Persistent Organic Pollutants, envirohealthaction website, accessed February 2004.
