The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
The Stockholm Convention seeks to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants, POPs for short. The Convention requires participating countries to reduce and, where possible, eliminate the production, use, and release of POPs. POPs are chemicals that are hazardous to human health and the environment. POPs are highly toxic, very persistent, highly mobile, and can build up in fatty tissue. At the beginning of 2016, Parties to the Convention identified twenty-six (26) substances whose production and use need to be regulated. These substances can be divided into three groups:
- pesticides
- industrial chemicals;
- unintentionally produced by-products from manufacturing and incomplete combustion processes e.g. the production of some pesticides and chlorinated substances.
In 2007, the Government of Barbados endorsed a National Implementation Plan for the management of POPs. This plan outlines activities that various stakeholders need to undertake in order to minimize the negative impacts of POPs. For further information on the Stockholm Convention, please click here.