I. ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS

UNEP Chemicals (IRPTC) in collaboration with the State Committee for Environment Protection of the Russian Federation and its Centre for International Projects (CIP), Moscow, held the Subregional Meeting on Identification and Assessment of Releases of Persistent Organic Pollutants in St.Petersburg, Russian Federation, from 1-4 July 1997.

Representatives from the following countries responsible for environment and public health attended the Meeting: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. As lecturers the representatives of the following international and regional organizations were invited: UNEP Chemicals (IRPTC), UN ECE, CEFIC, Greenpeace International. The presentations were also made by representatives from a number of national agencies, namely: Environment Canada, US Environment Protection Agency, Swedish National Chemical Inspectorate (KEMI), Federal Environmental Protection Agency of Germany and the Bavarian Institute of Waste Research. A list of participants is attached (Annex 1).

The workshop is considered as a logical continuation of collaboration between UNEP Chemicals (IRPTC) and New Independent States aimed at strengthening their national POPs management systems.

The aim of the St.Petersburg meeting was to discuss the current status of the problem and to initiate national inventories of POPs emissions, discharges and losses. A number of related issues were discussed at the Meeting including POPs containing pesticides, dioxin/furan emissions and wastes.

The meeting was opened by Mr G.Shkolenok, UNEP Chemicals. He welcomed the participants, briefly described the goals and tasks of the meeting and wished everybody a successful work. The meeting was also welcomed by Ms M.Yu.Klimova, the Head of the Unit of the Centre for International Projects, Mr A.N.Petrov, Director of the Institute of Toxicology (St.Petersburg). On behalf of UN ECE the participants were greeted by Mr.L.Nordberg, and on behalf of Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety - by Mr.J.Buccini.

Following the presentation of the participants the Chairman - Mr.B.Kurlyandsky (Russia) - and the Vice-Chairman - J.Plavinskis (Latvia) were elected. Ms T.Petrova (Uzbekistan) was elected the reporter. The participants adopted the proposed agenda (Annex 2).

2. PRESENTATIONS BY IRPTC AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE REPUBLICS

In accordance with the programme (Annex 2) the lectures and presentations of lecturers of the region and outside the region were made and discussed.

Subsequently, in their presentations, representatives of the Republics addressed various issues concerning POPs discharges and emissions in their countries. A brief summary of the presentations is given below.

As stated by the representatives of Armenia, the priorities in the country are the POPs containing pesticides as well as drinking water pollution by the persistent organic compounds. There is an urgent need to identify hazardous chemicals and the places of their storage. Due to the difficult economic situation the assistance of the developed countries in the field of methodologies transfer is deeply required.

The representative of Azerbaijan informed the meeting on the tasks facing the country in relation of POPs, including the establishing of the national register on POPs. There is lack of information in the country on pollution sources and pollutants from the neighbouring states. In relation to POPs the joint activities of all the countries in the region are required. Ecological situation in the country is extremely unfavourable due to the air, soil, water pollution, including the pollution of the Caspian Sea. The problem of toxic wastes management is also very acute.

As reported by the representative of Belarus, the List of Chemical and Biological Means of Plant Protection Approved for Use in Agriculture for 1994-1998 has been adopted. Persistent organic chemicals such as DDT, hexachlorocyclohexane, aldrin and some others were excluded from the list and their use was banned. Also use of such compounds as gamma HCH, sevin, phenylmercuracetate was banned and their stocks were buried at special grounds. The production and use of dioxins, biphenyls and furans are prohibited in the country. Nevertheless, environment pollution by these compounds is possible in the vicinity of such large industrial enterprises as Polimir plant in Novopolotsk, Chimvolokno Amalgamation in Mogilev, Azot Amalgamation in Grodno, and enterprises in the towns of Vileika, Lida and Gomel where these compounds may be formed as technological by-products. The need of awareness raising in the country in relation to POPs was also stressed.

The representative of Georgia reported that in the country the use of chemicals is decreasing. The system of their control and registration does not work, their testing has been factually stopped, and there is no registry of chemicals. In the majority of cases there is no any possibility to assess and\or to stop the harmful exposure. Till nowadays the problem of dioxins and furans monitoring has not been discussed. To solve the problem it is very important to use the experience of other countries and international organizations. Domestic problems of the country include lack of inter-agency co-ordination and huge volumes of illegally imported chemicals.

As stated by the representative of Kazakhstan, the pesticide environmental load has been lowered. Factually there is a lack of environmental POPs monitoring. Emissions from stationary sources has also been decreased. The law on wastes is being worked out, it is to solve many POPs related issues. Nowadays, the main needs of the country include environmental monitoring, development of analytical control services, and control of imported wastes.

The representative of Kyrgyzstan informed the meeting of the problem of new technologies transfer which faces the country. In the republic there is a lack of qualified experts to assess the introduction of new technologies. That was revealed during the construction of a new chemical plant. The absence of analytical base and lack of specialists hamper the solution of the POPs problem. There are no grounds for hazardous chemical wastes disposal, at the same time uncontrolled import of hazardous wastes to the country occurs.

As reported by the representative of Lithuania, the meeting is very useful , in the future it is essential to develop information exchange on POPs toxicity. The data received at the meeting will be used in the country, and materials of the meeting will be disseminated among the interested agencies.

The representative of the Republic of Moldova informed the meeting that there is no dioxins\furans monitoring in the country. DDT is prohibited, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, toxaphene, heptachlor and some other persistent compounds are not used. Despite the progress there is a number of serious problems which limit the possible activities in this field. Among the priorities one should mention training of personnel, improving of the information system and public awareness, development of the wastes management programme and development of the national programme on chemical safety. The Republic will be grateful for any assistance provided by the international organizations related to fulfilment of the planned activities on POPs management.

The representative of the Russian Federation informed of the problem of the various pollutants exposure at the country population. As for POPs containing pesticides, different control measures were taken from their restriction (toxaphene) to their total prohibition (aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor). Nowadays the production and use of 78 pesticides are prohibited. The situation with polychlorodibenzodioxines is being complicated due to the absence of systemic monitoring. The main activities to prevent the unfavourable exposure to dioxins are the following:

- careful identification of all potential primary sources of pollution;

- provision of pollution monitoring at the most dangerous sites;

- activities to eliminate the secondary sources of pollution;

- activities within the frames of the international conventions;

As stated by the representative of Tajikistan the country faces a series of problems. Due to the decrease in industrial activities, POPs emissions have been lowered. Monitoring of POPs concentrations is hampered by the lack of means of analytical control and poor technical support to the state monitoring service centres. It is necessary to develop the registration of pollution sources in the country. One of the major POPs sources is the use of pesticides in agriculture, not long ago the pesticides residue levels reached 10-13%. However, prohibition of the aerial application of pesticides and rare treatment of agricultural crops since 1994 have resulted in sharp decrease of pesticides environmental load. Nowadays the problem of analytical control is extremely important because of lack of necessary equipment and materials.

The representative of Turkmenistan stressed that the problems related to POPs which face the country are similar to those in the other states of the region. One of them is lack of information on the issue. The most serious problem in the country is technical support to POPs analytical control, since no related issue can be solved without special monitoring means. The representatives of the developed countries were asked to prove possible technical assistance to the country.

As it was mentioned by the representative of Uzbekistan the country is to identify the prior pollution sources according to their hazard degree. Nowadays there is no possibility to conduct thorough toxicological assessment of new pesticides which are being registered in the country only on the base of documents provided by suppliers. The appropriate environmental POPs monitoring and pollution sources control have not been established in the country, appropriate equipment and experts are absent. Since its establishment in 1977 the State Environmental Monitoring Service has been registering the residue levels of chlororganic pesticides. The POPs problem is the global problem, it requires the appropriate means for its solution and mutual efforts of all the countries in the region.

The representative of the Ukraine informed the participants of the POPs environmental load in the country (kg per hectare). Nowadays the most urgent problem is the storage of significant pesticides quantities with expired dates or banned for use. The conditions of their storage in most cases do not correspond to the relevant requirements. The above-mentioned as well as prolonged storage periods, poor quality of containers and packages resulted in the formation of various chemical compositions, and the formation of new compounds with unknown characteristics can not be excluded. Besides, there is a real possibility of illegal use of the banned pesticides, several such cases were reported. In the country there is an urgent need to develop and implement the organizational, technical, technological measures to dispose and eliminate the unwanted and banned pesticides stocks. The first stage of this work consists of comprehensive registration, including chemicals identification, sorting and repackaging of useless pesticides. In the Ukraine the draft programme of registration of useless pesticides has been developed. However difficulties in the economic situation hamper the commencement of the programme.

3. GENERAL DISCUSSION

An exchange of views on current problems with regard to POPs took place. The discussion touches upon the following issues: the problem of harmonization, transfer of technologies on wastes disposal, problem concerning the co-ordination of efforts by industry, government agencies and public. Various general deficiencies and matters of concern were identified.

The common problems which face the countries, are the lack of information, absence of analytical control, lack of funds and skilled personnel, as well as the problem of interagency co-ordination.

All representatives showed keen interest in co-operating with UNEP/Chemicals (IRPTC), other international and national programmes and agencies as well as with non-governmental organizations. Many participants were of the opinion that the UNEP/Chemicals (IRPTC) were of great importance and activities in the region and deserved continuation.

4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSIONS

1. The participants stressed the urgency of the topic for their countries and timeliness of the Meeting as well as the key role of UNEP in its initiation.
2. The high level of lectures and reports were noted as well as the usefulness of the discussions.
3. During the discussions both general and specific problems related to POPs in the countries of the region were identified.
4. In most countries the strategy and workplan adopted by the government concerning the POPs problem are absent.
5. In many countries the POPs global pathways, origin and transfer are not identified.
6. In many countries there are no POPs monitoring and risk assessment.
7. Some participants noted the absence of the analytical control service in their countries, other pointed out that the available analytical methods were extremely expensive. In relation to this, it is necessary to search for other ways of the problem solution.
8. Practically all the countries mentioned the absence of information exchange on POPs in the region.
9. The participants expressed their concern that introduction or transfer of new technologies on, so called, favourable terms very often posed threat to health of a man or to the environment.
10. It was stressed that many countries had certain legislative norms regulating handling of chemicals in all the use categories. However, lack of co-ordination among ministries and agencies poses a problem for the effective management of the process, and, in particular, POPs.
11. There is no co-ordination between the government and scientific centres on POPs alternatives development, assessment and production.
12. Some countries noted that it was necessary to assess POPs pollution of the environment with the aim of the development of the strategy and mechanisms to reduce and/or eliminate POPs discharges, spills and wastes.
13. It was stressed that the successful solution of the POPs problem was impossible without close co-operation among the countries of the region.
14. Many participants noted that the decisive factor of the POPs problem solution was to render the financial and technical support to the countries.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. To bring to the attention of the Governments of the participating countries the conclusions and recommendations of the Meeting.
2. To recommend to the Governments to develop the national strategy and action plan aimed at the POPs problem solution.
3. To recommend to the Governments to strengthen the co-operation in POPs problem including the involvement of intergovernmental mechanisms.
4. To develop the information exchange on POPs risk assessment.
5. To establish and/or strengthen the analytical control service for POPs.
6. To develop monitoring of the POPs pollution sources and POPs movements with the aim of their risk assessment, to establish national registers of POPs discharges.
7. The States should take measures to study technologies, to strengthen control on introduction (transfer) of new technologies concerning POPs alternatives.
8. To draw attention of the international organizations to the POPs problem existing in the countries with economies in transition with the aim of providing the countries with financial and technical assistance to solve the problem.
9. To accelerate the activities on the governmental level in the region to prepare an international document on POPs.