UNEP Chemicals is consolidating and expanding its chemicals assessment activities, emphasizing impacts on water.

Starting in spring 2000, it will execute the two-year US $5 million global project, Regionally Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances, with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).  This project will contribute to GEF priority setting and serve to guide international action to protect human health and the environment from persistent toxic substances.

In addition, UNEP Chemicals has initiated the preparatory GEF project, Assessing National Management Needs for Persistent Toxic Substances.  There will be strong linkages between these two projects as well as the GEF Global International Waters Assessment.
UNEP Chemicals is contributing to work on emerging issues being done by the International Programme on Chemical Safety, which is made up of the International Labour Organization, World Health Organization, and UNEP.  A key example is endocrine disruption.  Effects have been demonstrated on aquatic organisms, for example, and sewage water has been implicated as a potential source.

Under the umbrella of the Inter-organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals, work has been init-  ated  with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to harmonise approaches for assessing environmental exposure to chemicals, focusing on methods for assessing persistence, bioaccumulation, and long-range transport. 

Inside this issue:

To promote the environmentally sound management of chemicals, UNEP Chemicals is conducting more than 50 regional/sub-regional workshops in 2000-2001, with the part of the schedule in this issue's Calendar.

This capacity building programme builds on the successful awareness raising workshops held by UNEP and others on persistent organic pollutants (POPs).  It also focuses on specific issues identified as priorities through current negotiation of the POPs convention.

Major themes will be the reduction of emissions of dioxins and furans and management of polychlorinated biphenyls, sustainable alternatives to POPs pesticides, and management of stocks of obsolete pesticides. 
A substantial portion of the funding has been provided by the United States.

Additional support will go to workshops on implementation of the Rotterdam Convention and introduction of Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers at the national level.