Press Release: EU signs Protocol to phase out world’s most toxic chemicals

A conference to sign the international Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) took place in Stockholm on 22-23 May 2001. This Treaty controls the production, import, export, disposal, and use of the most toxic chemicals ever created. It established tough international controls on an initial cluster of 12 of these chemicals, of which most are subject to an immediate ban. These are aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene, dioxins and furans. The global POPs Convention was negotiated in the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and finalised in December 2000 in Johannesburg by delegates from 122 countries. The Swedish environment minister Kjell Larsson signed the Convention on behalf of the European Community.