UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

For information only
not an official record

GENEVA/NAIROBI, 25 March 1999 -- Moving to fill strategic data gaps in chemicals management, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued the first inventory of global capacity for disposing of highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in wastes and other forms.

PCB releases are a serious threat to public health and the environment on an international scale. Countries are targeting them for action as part of a legally binding international agreement now being negotiated through UNEP on persistent organic pollutants or POPs. The third round of talks is scheduled for Geneva in September.

"Successful completion of a convention by the year 2000 deadline in the UNEP mandate will contribute substantially to resolving the toxic legacy of the 20^th century," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer.

"Like ozone-destroying CFCs, ecology-destroying PCBs were widely used for decades before risks became understood," continued Toepfer. "Today, many developing countries lack the technical capacity to identify and destroy all the PCB wastes that have accumulated over the years and continue to accumulate. We must take rapid action before rusting and leaking equipment exacerbates the damage already done to our fragile Earth."

The inventory document was prepared by UNEP Chemicals in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.

This document presents options for PCB destruction in all regions of the world, giving governments and others responsible for managing PCB wastes a valuable first guide for evaluating disposal options and identifying suitable facilities.

Governments were asked to provide information on the type and capacity of available facilities that can dispose of PCBs and PCB-containing wastes and waste equipment. According to the survey, drawing on data from a questionnaire sent to governments and other sources, notably the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, there is considerable capacity in Europe and Asia-Pacific, for example, but there are few options in Africa and South America.

Globally, the survey document says, the principal problem in dealing with PCBs and PCB-containing equipment is not so much the disposal capacity or demonstrated technology as the challenges involved in identifying waste inventories in some countries and financing their destruction.

Though now out of production worldwide, PCBs found widespread application as coolants, insulating materials, lubricants for electrical transformers and capacitors, and other purposes. Between 1929 and 1989, world production of PCBs, excluding the Soviet Union, totaled 1.5 million tonnes, according to the report. As these PCB-containing products are handled and as they approach the end of their useful life, there is growing risk that accidental leaks and improper disposal may lead to pollution of the soil, water, or air.

PCBs are generally destroyed in special incinerators operating at very high temperatures; insufficient heat can release dioxins and furans—unintended but highly toxic by-products of combustion—into the atmosphere. PCBs are also stored in chemical waste landfills or broken down through other non-incineration technologies.

Compounding the PCB disposal situation are a range of related problems, including inadequate management or lack of treatment altogether, poor knowledge of the risks, unsafe transport of PCB-containing equipment, and the widespread presence of this equipment in urban areas.

People are mainly exposed to PCBs through food, such as fish and shellfish, principally fish and drinking water, and for infants especially through breast milk; skin contact; workplace and waste sites. The health effects include cancer, interference with reproduction and development, impaired immune function, and damage to the central nervous system and liver. Even trace amounts can have identifiable consequences, and those at highest risk are children.

Copies of the document, "Inventory of World-wide PCB Destruction Capacity", are available to the public free of charge from: UNEP Chemicals, Geneva Executive Centre, 11-13 chemin des Anémones, CH-1219 Chatelâine, Geneva, Switzerland.

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Note to journalists: Additional data and documents are available via the Internet at http://www.chem.unep.ch/. For followup or to arrange interviews, please contact: James B. Willis, Director, UNEP Chemicals, at tel: (+41-22) 917 81 83, fax: (+41-22) 797 34 60; e-mail: chemicals@unep.ch; or Linda Durkee, Policy and Communications Advisor, UNEP Chemicals, (+41-22) 917-85 11, ldurkee@unep.ch.

UNEP News Release 1999/21