Pacific states spotlight the 'dirty dozen'

Delegates from New Zealand, Australia and 12 other Pacific nations met in Wellington yesterday for a three-day workshop on how to reduce contamination by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as dioxins.

Meeting Stockholm Convention guidelines on POPs is on the agenda at the meeting co-hosted by the Environment Ministry and the United Nations Environment Programme.

The 12 common chemicals - known as the dirty dozen - contribute to cancer, birth defects and other health problems, and can stay in the environment for 100 years.

New Zealand bureaucrats will highlight ways to collect obsolete agrichemicals, clean contaminated sites, and set national environmental standards banning activities that release dioxins and other toxins into the air.

Case studies at the workshop will include the clean-up of New Zealand's most contaminated site, the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company land at Mapua, near Nelson, and bans such as on burning of tyres or oil in the open.

The 2001 Stockholm Convention requires signatory countries to commit to a long-term effort to reduce or eliminate health and environmental risks from specific chemicals. New Zealand ratified it last year.

The target chemicals include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), dioxins and furans, and nine organochlorine pesticides: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, hexachlorobenzene and toxaphene.

New Zealand has said it will reduce dioxin emissions, and clean up contaminated sites and waste pesticides, as well as banning the manufacture and use of the pesticides.

- NZPA