Ethiopian Review

Over 160 governments have agreed at a week-long meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to ban or restrict nine more toxic chemicals, including insecticide Lindane, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced on Sunday.

The move brings the number of hazardous pesticides and industrial chemicals targeted for elimination under the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants to 21. In a statement made available to PANA in New York, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, said: “The tremendous impact of these substances on human health and the environment has been acknowledged today by adding nine new chemicals to the Convention”.

“This shift reflects international concern on the need to reduce and eventually eliminate such substances throughout the global community,” he stated.

The nine chemicals now listed under the Convention are: Lindane, Alpha hexachlor ocyclohexane, Beta hexachlorocyclohexane, Hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether, Tetrabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether, Chlordecone, Hexabromobiphenyl, Pentachlorobenzene, Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride.

- AFRIQUE EN LIGNE