by China View

China has established a national work group to coordinate the country's efforts to implement the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) to rid the world's most populous nation of highly dangerous pesticides and other hazardous chemicals.

The group will be responsible for examining policies, standards, laws and regulations with regard to POPs control in the country, among other functions, said Wang Jirong, vice director ofthe State Environmental Protection Administration ( SEPA), at a weekend meeting commemorating China's signing of the convention in 2001.

The management and control of POPs should span their whole life cycle - from production, circulation, utilization, import and export and waste disposal - therefore requiring coordinated effortfrom different government departments, she said.

The group consists of a dozen of related government departments, including Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health, according to Wang.

However, she ackowledged that China has great challenges in phasing out the chemicals stipulated in the convention, as the country's lacks both technologies and funding to effectively supervise POPS pollution and find alternatives to POPs.

"We still have scarce knowledge of how serious our country and people have been polluted and hurt by POPs, because it will take along time to do overall assessment," said Wang,

SEPA estimated that it could cost at least 400 million US dollars to get a clear picture of POPs in the country.

Of all the pollutants released into the environment every year by human activity, POPs are among the most dangerous. They are highly toxic, causing an array of adverse effects, including death,disease, and birth defects, among humans and animals. Specific effects can include cancer, allergies and hypersensitivity, damageto the central and peripheral nervous systems, reproductive disorders, and disruption of the immune system.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, every human in the world carries traces of POPs in his or her body. POPs are highly stable compounds that can last for years or decades before breaking down. They circulate globally through a process known as the "grasshopper effect."

To deal with the global problem, a convention on POPs was passed at a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, in May 2001, that has been signed by 151 countries. The convention was ratified by Chinain June 2004 and became effective in the country in November that year.

The treaty requires all parties to take necessary steps to ban the production and use of some of the most toxic chemicals. The 12initial POPs are aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor mirex, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dioxins and furans.

China has five years to stop production of four of the pollutants -- DDT, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), chlordane and mirex --still in use, after applying for immunity. China can apply for another five-year immunity period, but no further exemptions are allowed.

"Despite the challenges, we are committed to fully implementing the Stockholm Convention as it benefits both human health and the environment of the world," Wang said.