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By FREDERICK NORONHA, (Environmental News Service)

The Greenpeace report was just released in India after a series of investigations here and in Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan have confirmed stockpiles of POPs, while India has a reported stockpile.

Greenpeace found DDT, BHC, Dieldrin and Heptachlor openly sold in vegetable markets in Karachi. Hardware stores in New Delhi stock the deadly pesticide aldrin whose registration was withdrawn more than two years ago.

POPs are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment.

"Chemicals now categorised as Persistent Organic Pollutants were black-listed in all Western nations at least a decade ago. In Asia, a combination of factors has resulted in the continued production, trade, use and release into the environment of most of these chemicals," said the Greenpeace report.

POP chemicals are considered among the most dangerous of life-threatening substances created by humans. Many POPs disrupt the endocrine system and are associated with reproductive failure, immune system disorder, behavior and learning disorders, and cancers. POPs build up through the food chain and can reach concentrations in wildlife and humans thousands of times higher than in the surrounding air, water and soil.

All well-known POPs are chlorinated compounds. These include: pesticides such as DDT, hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH), aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, mirex and toxaphene; industrial chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and unwanted industrial by-products dioxins and furans.

Some Indians have the dubious distinction of carrying among the highest levels of DDT and HCH in their bodies. For instance, an infant's estimated intake of lindane (gamma-HCH) from breast milk in India, based on mean levels of breast milk fat, exceeds the allowable daily intake (ADI) by 11 to 20 times.

The Greenpeace report found, in all the countries studied, that citizens bear the environmental cost of POPs usage, manufacture or storage. Citizens are also likely to bear the cost of eventual disposal.

Corporations, on the other hand, lack accountability in this area. Other principles like extended producer responsibility and the principle of polluter-pays were also "unheard of concepts" here, the report pointed out.

Greenpeace investigators found obsolete pesticide stockpiles in Pakistan and Nepal containing chemicals from well-known chemical corporations like Hoechst, Bayer, Shell, ICI, Velsicol, Dow, Rhone Poulenc and DuPont.

"Barring one instance in Pakistan where Bayer has agreed to reclaim and destroy stocks of Gusathion, none of the multinationals have come forward to accept their share of the responsibility," said the report.

Recent environmental studies commissioned by the Philippine Government confirmed that the former US military bases in the Philippines are "severely contaminated" with persistent organic pollutants, including PCBs, dieldrin, aldrin, chlordane, BHC and heptachlor.

Both India and China - two of the largest remaining POPs producers in the world - are known to manufacture, use and export DDT, a chemical blacklisted since the 1960s.

India, because of the sheer size of its manufacturing industry, should have been a major player in the international negotiations to eliminate POPs,

Greenpeace said. Instead, the Indian chemical industry "may be forced to spend money on finding new products and markets."

As follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit, governments agreed in February 1997 to negotiate a legally binding global convention to reduce and/or eliminate persistent organic pollutants.

On July 3, 1998 in Montreal, Canada, officials from 92 countries concluded the first round of talks towards this convention. They discussed how to minimize and eventually eliminate emissions and releases of persistent organic pollutants such as DDT and PCBs. John Buccini, chairman of the negotiations and director of commercial chemicals for Environment Canada said, "The positive spirit here makes it clear that the international community enthusiastically supports the need for a strong, effective treaty to reduce and eliminate these dangerous chemicals from our environment and from our bodies."

A second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a legally binding treaty on POPs will be held January 25-29 in Nairobi, Kenya.

New Delhi is already faced with a situation where continuing POPs production would "severely aggravate the already monumental problem of toxics pollution and widespread water contamination," the report said.

Environmental activists in nearby Bangladesh and Nepal are concerned about Indian exports of POPs to their countries.

Greenpeace blamed international financial bodies - like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank/IFC - with supporting and in some instances even pushing the expansion of POPs producing technologies. The same allegation was made against Western development agencies USAID from the U.S. and DANIDA from Denmark.

Greenpeace criticized DANIDA and USAID for pushing cement kilns as the solution for "disposal" of obsolete pesticides. "They claim it works in the U.S. and in Denmark, although even the United States Environmental Protection Agency admits that hazardous waste burning cement kilns are the second largest dioxin source in the U.S.," says the report.

Unlike citizens in the U.S. and Denmark, citizens in Asia are deprived of the information about the hazardous activities in their areas. "Right to Know" legislations hardly exist in this region.

New capacities for pulp and paper, and for manufacturing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are being set up in India, Malaysia and Thailand. This is at the same time when Northern countries are preparing for an eventual phase-out of PVC.

"The story of POPs in Asia is one of widespread contamination as a result of irresponsible corporate behaviour, shortsighted lending agencies, ignorant governments and an unwitting citizenry. In several countries, particularly in South Asia, the condition is very serious," the Greenpeace study cautioned.

The International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) says that the appropriate goal for an international treaty on POPs is the establishment of a systematic and sustained Programme of Action in which all countries participate to eliminate POPs and their significant sources. "This is the only course of action that can, over time, eliminate the injury that POPs cause," the IPEN said in July.

"The goal of a global POPs convention must not be defined as the 'better management of risks associated with POPs,'" IPEN warned. "POPs do not represent a 'risk,' but rather a current source of significant injury to the biosphere - to humans, to wildlife and to entire ecosystems around the world."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1998