Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of chemicals that persist in the environment, are capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue, and have significant impacts on human health and the environment, even at low concentrations. They include such substances as dioxin, PCBs and DDT. POPs released to the environment can travel through air and water to regions far distant from their original source. In these distant regions, POPs can concentrate in living organisms, including humans, to levels that can injure human health and the environment.

CIEL's mission in the international POPs negotiation has been to work with the public interest community to attain a strong, effective and equitable global agreement to eliminate POPs. CIEL participates in the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN), and hosts IPEN's International Coordinator. IPEN is a global network of NGOs dedicated to the common aim of POPs elimination. Now that the Stockholm Convention has been adopted, the focus of IPEN and CIEL's work is shifting toward ratification of the treaty and implementation of its obligations, as well as the continued development of treaty mechanisms relating to listing of new chemicals, trade in listed chemicals, and compliance.

Specific POPs-related topics include:

• The Stockholm Convention on POPs

• U.S. Implementing Legislation

• POPs Impacts

• POPs and Human Rights

Contacts for More Information:

For more information, please contact Glenn Wiser at gwiser@ciel.org, or Bjorn Beeler at bbeeler@ciel.org

This page last updated on 23 February 2005

Funding for CIEL’s POPs Program has been provided by The Jenifer Altman Foundation, The Compton Foundation, Inc. and The Mitchell Kapor Foundation.