[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 92 (Wednesday, May 13, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26668-26670]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-12748]
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DEPARTMENT OF STATE
[Public Notice No. 2819]
Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific
Affairs; Public Meeting on Preparations for an International Agreement
Through the United Nations Environment Program on Persistent Organic
Pollutants
SUMMARY: The United States government, through an interagency working
group chaired by the U.S. Department of State, is preparing for
negotiations through the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on a
global agreement to address certain persistent organic pollutants that
result in risks of a transboundary nature. The first negotiating
session is scheduled to take place in Montreal, Canada, on June 29-July
3 this year. The Department of State will host a public meeting in
advance of this session to outline issues likely to arise in the
context of the negotiations. The meeting will take place on Wednesday,
June 3 from 10:30-12:30 in Room 1912 of the U.S.
[[Page 26669]]
Department of State, 2201 C Street Northwest, Washington, D.C. to
expedite their entrance into the building, attendees should provide
Eunice Mourning (tel. 202-647-9266, fax 202-647-5947) with their date
of birth and social security number by close of business on Monday,
June 1. Attendees should enter at the ``C'' Street entrance and bring
picture identification with them.
For further information, please contact Mr. Trigg Talley, U.S.
Department of State, OES/ENV, Room 4325, 2201 C Street NW, Washington,
D.C. 20520. Phone 202-647-5808, fax 202-647-5947.
Supplementary Information: The United States, through an interagency
working group chaired by the U.S. Department of State, is preparing for
negotiations through the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) on an
agreement that will establish global controls on certain pollutants
that, because of their physico-chemical properties, pose risks of a
transboundary or global nature. These pollutants, which have been
termed ``persistent organic pollutants'' in a number of international
discussions, share four characteristics: they are toxic, persist in the
environment for long periods of time, bioaccumulate in the fatty tissue
of humans and animals, and are prone to long-distance transport. These
pollutants are generally heavily controlled in the United States. Well-
known examples of chemicals that exhibit these characteristics include
dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated
dibenzo-furans (PCDFs).
POPs have been linked to a variety of adverse effects on humans and
wildlife, including immune and metabolic system dysfunction,
neurological deficits, reproductive abnormalities, and cancer. POPs
biomagnify through the food chain, and have been measured in fatty
tissue (including in fish and marine mammals consumed by humans) at
concentrations many orders of magnitude greater than those found in the
surrounding environment. Because of these characteristics, several POPs
continue to raise concerns decades after controls have been put into
place in the United States. For example, DDT remains ubiquitous in the
environment and human tissue twenty-five years after its control in the
United States. Likewise, continuing PCB contamination led to fish
advisories in watersheds in 34 U.S. states in 1995 (including the Great
Lakes), some twenty years after initial controls.
Certain POPs also behave in a manner that can result in effects
that are transboundary or global in nature. Many of these POPs are
``semi-volatile,'' meaning that they tend to vaporize at warmer
temperatures and condense as the air gets cooler. Due to prevailing
atmospheric circulation patterns, and the propensity of certain POPs
for successive re-volatilization, there is evidence to support the
systematic migration of such substances to cooler latitudes. Deposition
in the Arctic region is particularly significant. POPs can also travel
long distance through other mechanisms as well.
Studies have identified significant deposits of many of these
chemicals in the tissues of fish, mammals, birds and humans in
locations thousands of miles from any known source. Studies have in
particular found deposits of a number of POPs in the Arctic environment
where they have been measured at high levels in humans and wildlife.
For certain native populations whose traditional diet is heavy in fish
and marine mammals, measured levels of several POPs, including DDT and
PCBs, approach or exceed levels of concern.
The United States and many other countries have already taken
substantial action to address risks associated with the pollutants
identified for action in international bodies. Nonetheless, certain of
them remain in use and production in parts of the world, and there
appears to be continuing transboundary deposition of a number of these
chemicals. For example, analysis of DDT samples taken in North America
suggest fairly recent deposition, probably from sources in the tropics.
In response to mounting evidence of potentially significant
transboundary deposition of and exposure to these chemicals, the United
States has for some time supported action on the most problematic POPs
in several regional bodies, in addition to UNEP's work. In North
America, the United Stats has been involved in efforts to address POPs
risks through the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, as well as
through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.
Finally, the United States and over 50 other countries recently
concluded negotiations on a protocol on persistent organic pollutants
through the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe's Convention on Long-
Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). The protocol calls for
prohibitions or restrictions on thirteen pesticides and commercial
chemicals (DDT, PCBs, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, toxaphene, mirex,
hexachlorobenzene, heptachlor, chlordane, chlordecone,
hexabromobipheny, and hexachlorocyclohexane); and controls on
significant emissions from releases from stationary sources of four by-
products of industrial processes (PCDDs, PCDFs, hexachlorobenzene and
certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). All of these pollutants are
subject to stringent controls in the United States. The agreement also
establishes a mechanism for considering action on additional pollutants
once the agreement comes into force. More information on this protocol
and the LRTAP Convention can be found at http://www.unece.org.
Activities to Date through the U.N. Environment Program
The United States and other countries recognized several years ago
that the global nature of POPs dispersion (and particularly continuing
releases in different regions of the world) meant that regional
activities would not be sufficient to fully address the problem.
Accordingly, preparatory work was begun through UNEP and other
technical organizations in 1995 toward global action to address some of
the most harmful persistent organic pollutants. Countries identified
twelve pollutants in particular for early assessment and global action.
The pollutants identified include nine pesticides, eight of which
are banned for use in the United States (DDT, chlordane, aldrin,
dieldrin, endrin, toxaphene, mirex, and hexachlorobenzene; the ninth,
heptachlor, is severely restricted); PCBs, a family of industrial
chemicals that are no longer produced in the United States but which
remain in use in electrical equipment and other uses; and PCDDs and
PCDFs, two toxic by by-products of combustion and other industrial
processes.
Countries recognized that addressing these three different classes
of POP will require different management approaches. For example,
commercially produced POPs such as pesticides would be subject to use
and production controls; in contrast, addressing PCDDs and PCDFs will
require a variety of measures aimed at reducing releases of PCDDs into
the environment. Finally, to the extent that there are significant
stocks of PCB equipment as well as other POPs stockpiles, such stocks
would need to be managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound
manner.
In December 1995, 105 countries at the Washington Conference on
Land-
[[Page 26670]]
Based Sources of Marine Pollution called for the development of a
global legally binding instrument addressing the twelve substances, as
well as the development of a procedure for consideration of additional
pollutants in the future. An Ad Hock Working Group on POPs under the
Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS), meeting in June
1996, also concluded that a global agreement was necessary, and issued
a set of recommendations to the U.N. Environment Program regarding
specific types of actions. In February 1997, the U.N. Environment
Program authorized establishment of an international negotiating
committee, to work on the basis of a negotiating mandate provided in
UNEP Decision 19/13C. The Decision, which closely reflects the
recommendations of the IFCS Ad Hock Working Group on POPs, can be found
in full on the internet on the POPs Home Page, which can be accessed
through UNEP's Chemicals Home Page (http://irptc.unep.ch). The POPs
Home Page contains the IFCS recommendations and other information on
POPs and related activities as well.
Among other things, countries represented in the U.N. Environment
Program's Governing Council concluded that international action,
including a global legally binding instrument, is required to reduce
the risks to human health and the environment arising from the release
of the twelve specific POPs. Countries decided that immediate
international action should be initiated to protect human health and
the environment through measures which will reduce and/or eliminate the
emissions and discharges of the twelve POPs and, where appropriate,
eliminate production and subsequently the remaining use of those POPs
that are intentionally produced. Countries recognized that such action
should include: use of separate, differentiated approaches to take
action on pesticides, industrial chemicals, and unintentionally
produced by-products and contaminants; use of transition periods, with
phased implementation for various proposed actions; careful and
efficient management of existing stocks of the specified persistent
organic pollutants and, where necessary and feasible, their
elimination; training in enforcement and monitoring of use to
discourage the misuse of POP pesticides; and remediation of
contaminated sites and environmental reservoirs, where feasible and
practicable taking into account national and regional considerations in
the light of the global significance of the problem.
The Decision calls for the U.N. Environment Program to prepare for
and convene, together with the World Health Organization and other
relevant international organizations, an intergovernmental negotiating
committee, with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding
instrument for implementing international action initially beginning
with the twelve specified POPs and to take into account the conclusions
and recommendations of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Persistent Organic
Pollutants of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety. It also
notes the need to develop science-based criteria and a procedure for
identifying additional persistent organic pollutants as candidates for
future international action, and requests the intergovernmental
negotiating committee to establish, at its first meeting, an expert
group to carry out this work. It specifies that the group should work
expeditiously, proceeding concurrently with the intergovernmental
negotiating committee process, to develop criteria for consideration by
the intergovernmental negotiating committee in the negotiation of a
legally binding instrument. It specifies that the process should
incorporate criteria pertaining to persistence, bioaccumulation,
toxicity and exposure in different regions and should take into account
the potential for regional and global transport including dispersion
mechanisms for the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, migratory species
and the need to reflect possible influences of marine transport and
tropical climates. The Decision also calls for the U.N. Environment
Program to undertake a variety of actions to lead to more effective
ways of addressing specific aspects of POPs.
The Decision calls for negotiations to begin this year and to be
completed by the year 2000. It is expected that negotiating sessions
will occur every six months or so, with technical work occurring in the
interim.
The Administration is preparing its position for this negotiation,
and has scheduled a public meeting to be held on Wednesday, June 3 from
10:30 to 12:30 in Room 1912 of the U.S. Department of State. Members of
the interagency working group will provide an overview of U.S.
preparations for the first meeting. The U.S. Department of State is
issuing this notice to help ensure that potentially affected parties
are aware of and knowledgeable about these negotiations. In subsequent
briefings, we will be contacting organizations that have expressed an
interest by mail or fax. Those organizations that cannot attend the
June 3 meeting, but wish to remain informed, should provide Mr. Trigg
Talley of the Department of State (202-647-5808; tel. 202-647-5947 fax;
LTalley@state.gov) with their address, and telephone and fax numbers.
Dated: May 8, 1998.
Trigg Talley,
Foreign Affairs Officer, Office of Environmental Policy.
[FR Doc. 98-12748 Filed 5-12-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710-09-M
