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The Stockholm Convention on PoP fails to stop pollution with SCCPs

A group of NGOs, WECF included, have released a call for listing SCCPs, a harmful group of chemicals, in the Stockholm Convention as soon as possible.

20.10.2012 |

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Government delegates to a committee of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have failed again to take urgent action on short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), a group of harmful toxic chemicals.

SCCPs are a group of industrial chemicals used as lubricants in small scale metal cutting, exposing unsuspecting workers, as well as people in areas near and far away from their point of release.They are also used in drilling fluids by the expanding gas industry, endangering wildlife and the environment.

SCCPs show high persistence in the environment and accumulate in living organisms. Hence, they have been found in human breast milk. SCCPs pose a serious potential or negative health effects on humans such as causing cancer, liver and thyroid damage.Their persistence allows them to travel long distances and reach regions where they have never been used and thus contaminate the environment uncontrollably.

Therefore, a group of environmental and health organizations, including WECF, have signed and released a call to list SCCPs in the Stockholm Convention as soon as possibly, thus restricting their worldwide production and usage.

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