No Action on Toxics Treaty Leaves People and Wildlife Exposed

WWF

The five-day meeting will focus on implementation matters. The treaty targets 12 of the most highly persistent and toxic chemicals ever produced and becomes legally binding when 50 nations ratify. In May 2001 Canada was the first of ten countries to ratify and complies with many of the treaty’s requirements, having banned the manufacturing and use of DDT and eight other highly persistent pesticides and PCBs years ago. Canada recently made financial contributions to help developing countries phase out POPs. However, back at home, Canada still needs to take action to meet both the letter and spirit of the treaty.

“Ratification without implementation is like marriage without commitment,” says Julia Langer, WWF’s Director for International Conservation. “Coasting on past achievements might get Canada kudos at international meetings but polar bears in the Arctic, fish in the Great Lakes and all people alive aren’t fooled – they are still full of chemicals.”

Action on POPs is missing on many fronts, including:

  • Elimination of POPs in pesticides. There are at least a dozen widely-used pesticides which contain, as so-called “micro-contaminants”, substances banned by the POPs treaty, including DDT, dioxins, furans and hexachlorobenze.
  • Ratification of the “Basel Ban” amendment which prohibits the export of hazardous waste from industrialized to developing nations.
  • Elimination of POPs emissions from existing sources, including industrial facilities and municipal incinerators.
  • Prohibition of new POPs sources, for example dioxins and furans from new incinerators or industrial facilities.
  • Monitoring and reporting of all POPs
  • Action to eliminate additional POPs. Canada is the only country that has opted-out of banning new substances added to the treaty, and has not acted on a wide range of POPs-equivalent substances currently in use.

Such actions should be specified in a National Implementation Plan, which is a requirement of the treaty. Environment Canada does not appear to be giving any priority to rooting out remaining POPs, hasn’t drafted an implementation plan or initiated consultations on implementing the treaty, and has neither programs nor rules in place to prohibit new sources of POPs, according to WWF and other environmental organizations expert in pollution prevention in Canada.

The Stockholm Convention is an international Treaty to control POPs. These are chemicals that are persistent in the environment, travel to all corners of the earth, accumulate in living tissues and are toxic to humans and wildlife. The 12 substances in the treaty include dioxins and furans, often cited as “the most toxic chemicals on earth,” and DDT which is still widely used for malaria control in the tropics. POPs are present in the bodies of every Canadian citizen.