China is preparing to ratify an international convention aimed
at controlling persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
Officials with the State Environmental Protection Administration
(SEPA) said yesterday
that an application for the ratification has been submitted to the
National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.
The country is already working on a plan to implement the
convention nationwide, said SEPA Vice Minister Wang Jirong, during
a Sino-US workshop on implementation of the convention
yesterday.
The Stockholm Convention on POPs was signed by about 150
countries, including China, in May 2001. It came into effect on May
17 this year.
POPs are highly toxic chemical substances that threaten human
health and the environment. Well-known POPs include DDT, used to
combat malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and PCBs, used as electrical
insulators in transformers, capacitors and other electrical
equipment. The convention aims initially to control 12 POPs, the
"Dirty Dozen."
China is also working toward developing alternatives to
POPs.
Both experts and officials agreed that the country faces an
uphill battle.
Yue Runsheng, a senior official with SEPA's Department of
International Cooperation, said the country should improve its POPs
policy and legal systems, management, basic study and risk
assessment. It also faces a lack of professionals and the funds to
develop techniques for substituting, treating and reducing
POPs.
The reduction and elimination of POPs require enormous effort.
For example, although China has stopped producing PCBs, it
estimates there are tens of thousands of tons of PCBs across the
country.
"We are not sure where such PCBs are, so finding and identifying
them requires huge input," Yue said.
According to Zang Wenchao, who works with SEPA’s Division of
Solid Waste and Chemicals, China will tighten control over
chemicals, including POPs.
New measures will include the establishment of a national
chemical and pesticide management system, implementing safe
treatment of hazardous chemical waste and seeking more
international financial and technical support.
China is one of the world’s largest chemical producers.
Five of the products on the Dirty Dozen list were once
mass-produced in China, and four are still produced and used in
some places.
(China Daily June 9, 2004)