Toxics without boundaries
Environmental pollution is a problem without boundaries. Emissions travel by air, water, bound to particles, and also bio bio-transportation in organisms over long distances and sometimes over the entire globe. Products manufactured in one place on the globe are often used in another, with toxic ingredients exported and imported likewise. Consequently, chemicals are an issue for negotiation between countries and have been so for decades. More than 50 regional and international agreements on chemicals and waste management have been adopted by governments.
Some key global treaties are the Convention on the Prevention of Marine
Pollution
by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (1972), the Montreal Protocol on Substances
that Deplete the Ozone Layer (adopted in 1987), the Basel Convention on
the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous and Other Wastes (1989), the Rotterdam
Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous
Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (1998), the Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs, 2001) and the Strategic Approach
to International Chemicals Management (SAICM, adopted in February 2006).
Public interest Non-Governmental Organisations make an effort to influencing
the content of these agreements, striving for ambitious goals, but also
making sure that agreements lead to a change.