sexta-feira, 20 de maio de 2011

The dangerous substance endosulfan is being globally banned


From April 24 to 29 this year, the Stockholm Convention held its fifth meeting since it was founded. The Stockholm Convention is a United Nation agreement about banning dangerous substances with the ability to spread over far distances. It is the most important agreement when it comes to regulate dangerous substances globally. It came into force in 2004 and over 170 states have ratified on the agreement.

Under this meeting the parties came to the conclusion to ban the use of the pesticide endosulfan. Endosulfan is in the group of what is being considered as dangerous substance. Dangerous substances are chemicals which contain toxics and are normally being used in the industry. Europe is one of the places in the world which produce most dangerous substances. Endosulfan is a very dangerous substance because it’s not decomposable and can spread from far distances. They are among others, found in the Arctic, far from where the main source was. In Norway, this substance has been banned since 1999.

To ban endosulfan is an important step in the work towards decreasing the spread of dangerous substances in the environment. Dangerous substances in general are a global challenge and international regulations are necessary to maintain a certain control with the substances.

Since it was considered necessary with some temporary exception, the parties also decided to look at how one can get a total phase-out by using more environmentally friendly alternatives.

The Stockholm Convention now covers 22 dangerous substances. The Convention included at first twelve dangerous substances (POPs), including DDT, PCBs and dioxins. Nine more substances was included in 2009, and now the endosulfan in 2011.

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