Global NGO network fighting various types of pollutants
LogoIPEN's action during the negotiations for a plastics treaty (Uruguay, 2022)
The International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) (formerly International POPs Elimination Network)[1] is a global network of NGOs dedicated to the common aim of eliminating pollutants, such as lead in paint, mercury and lead in the environment, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endocrine disrupting chemicals, and other toxics.
IPEN was spun off from the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) in 1998.[2][3] It became one of the most prominent NGOs in negotiations over the Stockholm Convention and has continued to play an important role in subsequent chemicals-related international negotiations.[4]
IPEN is composed of public interest non-governmental organizations who support a common platform for the global elimination of POPs via the Stockholm Convention, work to influence the implementation of the Rotterdam and Basel conventions, as well as the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
IPEN's more than 550 public interest non-governmental organizations in over 120 countries work together for the elimination of toxic pollutants, on an expedited yet socially equitable basis. This mission includes achieving a world in which all chemicals are produced and used in ways that eliminate significant adverse effects on human health and the environment, and where POPs and chemicals of equivalent concern no longer pollute local and global environments.[5]
IPEN is co-chaired by Tadesse Amera and Pamela K. Miller. Former co-chairs were Sharyle Patton (1998–2004), Romeo F. Quijano (1998–2006), Jack Weinberg (2001–2005), Jamidu Katima (2006–2010), Mariann Lloyd-Smith (2006–2011), Emmanuel Calonzo (2011–2015) and Olga Speranskaya (2010–2018).[6]
IPEN is coordinated via Hubs in eight regions: Anglophone Africa; Francophone Africa; Central, Western & (sections of) Eastern Europe (CEWE); a portion of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus & Central Asia (EECCA); Latin America; Middle East & North Africa (MENA); South Asia; and Southeast Asia.[7] Centre de Recherche et d’Education Pour le Développement (CREPD) based in Yaoundé, Cameroon is the Regional Hub for Fancophone Africa.[8]Arnika Toxics and Waste Programme based in Prague, Czech Republic is the Regional Hub for Central, Eastern & Western Europe.[9]
↑ Zavestoski, Stephen (2010). "Environmental health organizing in a globalizing world: The emergence of a global anti-toxics movement and its political, legal and economic challenges". In Kopnina, Helen; Keune, Hans (eds.). Health and Environment: Social Science Perspectives. Hauppauge, N.Y: Nova Science. pp.255–272. ISBN978-1-60876-216-3.
A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming or anthropogenic in origin. Pollutants result in environmental pollution or become public health concerns when they reach a concentration high enough to have significant negative impacts.
Chlordane, or chlordan, is an organochlorine compound that was used as a pesticide. It is a white solid. In the United States, chlordane was used for termite-treatment of approximately 30 million homes until it was banned in 1988. Chlordane was banned 10 years earlier for food crops like corn and citrus, and on lawns and domestic gardens.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a multilateral environmental fund that provides grants and blended finance for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), mercury, sustainable forest management, food security, and sustainable cities in developing countries. It is the largest source of multilateral funding for biodiversity globally, and distributes more than $1 billion a year on average to address inter-related environmental challenges.
Lindane, also known as gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH), gammaxene, Gammallin and benzene hexachloride (BHC), is an organochlorine chemical and an isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane that has been used both as an agricultural insecticide and as a pharmaceutical treatment for lice and scabies.
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is an international environmental treaty, signed on 22 May 2001 in Stockholm and effective from 17 May 2004, that aims to eliminate or restrict the production and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. They are toxic chemicals that adversely affect human health and the environment around the world. Because they can be transported by wind and water, most POPs generated in one country can and do affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released.
Dieldrin is an organochlorine compound originally produced in 1948 by J. Hyman & Co, Denver, as an insecticide. Dieldrin is closely related to aldrin, which reacts further to form dieldrin. Aldrin is not toxic to insects; it is oxidized in the insect to form dieldrin which is the active compound. Both dieldrin and aldrin are named after the Diels-Alder reaction which is used to form aldrin from a mixture of norbornadiene and hexachlorocyclopentadiene.
Toxaphene was an insecticide used primarily for cotton in the southern United States during the late 1960s and the 1970s. Toxaphene is a mixture of over 670 different chemicals and is produced by reacting chlorine gas with camphene. It can be most commonly found as a yellow to amber waxy solid.
Endosulfan is an off-patent organochlorine insecticide and acaricide that is being phased out globally. It became a highly controversial agrichemical due to its acute toxicity, potential for bioaccumulation, and role as an endocrine disruptor. Because of its threats to human health and the environment, a global ban on the manufacture and use of endosulfan was negotiated under the Stockholm Convention in April 2011. The ban has taken effect in mid-2012, with certain uses exempted for five additional years. More than 80 countries, including the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, several West African nations, the United States, Brazil, and Canada had already banned it or announced phase-outs by the time the Stockholm Convention ban was agreed upon. It is still used extensively in India and China despite laws against its use. It is also used in a few other countries. It is produced by the Israeli firm Makhteshim Agan and several manufacturers in India and China. On 13.05.2011, the India Supreme Court ordered a ban on the production and sale of endosulfan in India, pending further notice.
Pentabromodiphenyl ether is a brominated flame retardant which belongs to the group of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Because of their toxicity and persistence, their industrial production is to be eliminated under the Stockholm Convention, a treaty to control and phase out major persistent organic pollutants (POP).
Olga Speranskaya is a Russian scientist and environmentalist. She has been the Director of the Chemical Safety Program at the Eco-Accord Center for Environment and Sustainable Development in Moscow since 1997 and holds a master's degree in Geophysics from Moscow State University, and a doctorate in Environmental physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 2010 to 2018, she was a co-chair of the International POPs Elimination Network. Speranskaya has led many campaigns against the use of organic pollutants, fought to ban the burial and transport of hazardous chemicals, and provided information to government decision-makers for policy changes in many different countries.
The Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants, a 1998 protocol on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), is an addition to the 1979 Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). The Protocol seeks "to control, reduce or eliminate discharge, emissions and losses of persistent organic pollutants" in Europe, some former Soviet Union countries, and the United States, in order to reduce their transboundary fluxes so as to protect human health and the environment from adverse effects.
Pentachlorobenzene (PeCB) is a chemical compound with the molecular formula C6HCl5 which is a chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbon. It consists of a benzene ring substituted with five chlorine atoms. PeCB was once used industrially for a variety of uses, but because of environmental concerns there are currently no large scale uses of PeCB. Pentachlorobenzene is a known persistent organic pollutant (POP) and banned globally by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2009.
Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is an international coalition of more than 600 NGOs in 90 countries which advocates for less hazardous alternatives to pesticides. It was founded in May 1982 with its first meeting in Penang, Malaysia.
Safe Planet: the United Nations Campaign for Responsibility on Hazardous Chemicals and Wastes is the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN Food and Agricultural Organization-led global public awareness and outreach campaign for ensuring the safety of human health and the environment against hazardous chemicals and wastes.
Agbogbloshie is a nickname of a commercial district on the Korle Lagoon of the Odaw River, near the center of Accra, Ghana's capital city in the Greater Accra region. Near the slum called "Old Fadama", the Agbogbloshie site became known as a destination for externally generated automobile and electronic scrap collected from mostly the western world. It was a center of a legal and illegal exportation network for the environmental dumping of electronic waste (e-waste) from industrialized nations. The Basel Action Network, a small NGO based in Seattle, has referred to Agbogbloshie as a "digital dumping ground", where they allege millions of tons of e-waste are processed each year.
The Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is a programme that enables collection of comparable monitoring data from all regions of the world to assess the effectiveness of the Stockholm Convention in minimizing human and environmental exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs). To know whether the levels of POPs are increasing or decreasing over time, information on environmental and human exposure levels of these chemicals should enable detection of trends. GMP looks at background levels of POPs at locations not influenced by local sources, such as ‘hot spots’. For human sampling, the focus is on the general population rather than on individuals who may have suffered high exposure to POPs.
Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances (PBTs) are a class of compounds that have high resistance to degradation from abiotic and biotic factors, high mobility in the environment and high toxicity. Because of these factors PBTs have been observed to have a high order of bioaccumulation and biomagnification, very long retention times in various media, and widespread distribution across the globe. Most PBTs in the environment are either created through industry or are unintentional byproducts.
Jindřich Petrlík is a Czech scientist and environmentalist. He is a co-founder and board member of the Czech NGO Arnika, program manager of its Toxics and Waste Programme.
Arnika is a Czech non-governmental organization (NGO) established on 29 September 2001, and officially registered as a civic association. It focuses on public participation, biodiversity protection, and eliminating toxic substances and waste.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
