[health-vn] UN CONFERENCE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PANEL TO WARN AGAINST DANGEROUS CHEMICALS

[Vern Weitzel]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: UN CONFERENCE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PANEL TO WARN AGAINST DANGEROUS 
CHEMICALS
Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 11:00:04 -0400
From: UNNews <UNNews at un.org>
To: <news4 at secint00.un.org>

UN CONFERENCE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PANEL TO WARN AGAINST DANGEROUS CHEMICALS
New York, May 11 2009 11:00AM
A key speaker at a United Nations conference on managing the health risks posed 
by everyday chemicals has called for the world body to create an international 
panel of experts to help protect the public against the poisonous substances.

It has become increasingly urgent to manage chemicals in household products 
safely to protect children and future generations, stressed former Swedish 
Environment Ambassador Viveka Bohn at the opening of the second session of the 
International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2).

Although Governments and industry are responsible for tackling the health and 
environment problems caused by chemicals, Ms. Bohn said that scientists have a 
“key role to play in conveying and explaining to the public and to the 
politicians, clearly and objectively, the latest knowledge on the effects of 
exposure to chemicals, especially the ‘cocktail’ effect.”

There is wide agreement that much more research is needed on the unpredictable 
impact of several chemicals found together, known as the cocktail effect.

In her address to the five-day conference in Geneva, read by her daughter Maria, 
Ms. Bohn pushed for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health 
Organization (WHO) to pool scientific research on chemicals and to establish an 
international chemicals panel similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
Change (IPCC).

In a related development, governments around the world banned nine chemicals on 
Saturday, adding them on the list of 12 substances already prohibited under the 
2001 Stockholm Convention.

The Stockholm Convention targets hazardous pesticides and industrial chemicals 
that can kill people, damage the nervous and immune systems, cause cancer and 
reproductive disorders and interfere with normal infant and child development.

“We now have a clear signal that Governments around the world take seriously the 
risks posed by such toxic chemicals,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

Adding the new chemicals to the Convention – administered by UNEP and signed by 
152 governments – signals a shift reflecting “international concern on the need 
to reduce and eventually eliminate such substances throughout the global 
community,” added Mr. Steiner.

The week-long Conference of the Parties (COP), held in Geneva from 4 to 9 May, 
also reached a decision on the endorsement of the DDT global partnership. While 
DDT is targeted for eventual elimination, the Convention recognizes that some 
countries will continue to use this pesticide to protect their citizens from 
malaria and other diseases.
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