Persistent Organic Pollutants

About Persistent Organic Pollutants:

• They are organic chemical substances and are carbon-based.
• POPs have been widely used throughout the supply chain, in all kinds of products including pesticides, in industry processes and can also be released into the environment unintentionally. 
• These POPs do not break down easily. Thus they remain in the environment for decades, travel over great distances through water and wind and eventually work their way through the food chain by accumulating in the body fat of species.
• They remain intact for exceptionally long periods of time (many years);
  • They become widely distributed throughout the environment as a result of natural processes involving soil, water and, most notably, air;
  • They accumulate in the living organisms including humans, and are found at higher concentrations at higher levels in the food chain; and
  • They are toxic to both humans and wildlife.

A global treaty on POPs i.e Stockholm Convention

• It was entered into force in 2004.
• The Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants calls for reduction or elimination of releases of POPs globally.
• Parties to the Convention commit to not produce or use the chemicals listed in its annexes. 
• To date, 185 countries have ratified the Stockholm Convention and 34 POPs are listed as17 pesticides, 15 industrial chemicals, 7 unintentional by-products.

Q1: What is a pesticide?

It is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests. Pesticides include herbicides for destroying weeds and other unwanted vegetation, insecticides for controlling a wide variety of insects.

News: Inescapable threat

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