Persistent Organic
Pollutants (POPs) |
RESOLUTION
Seminar 3-4 March 2003
Introduction
Cheliabinsk region belongs to the category of Russian
regions with unsafe environmental situation. High concentration of nature polluting and
destroying industries is the major determinant factor for critical environmental
situation. As a whole, there are over 15,000 industrial factories polluting the
environment in the region. As before, the atmospheric air remains most polluted in
Cheliabinsk, Magnitogorsk and Karabash, which are included in the list of towns with
extremely high level of air pollution.
Cheliabinsk region is one of the leading areas in the Russian Federation in relation to
the amounts of production and accumulation of toxic industrial wastes, including those
containing persistent organic pollutants. The following issues remain critical in the
region:
There are no treatment facilities and sites to dispose and neutralize
toxic wastes of 1-2 risk level and petroleum sludge;
There are no facilities in the region to neutralize highly dangerous
wastes – polychlorinated biphenyls and toxic chemicals;
The number of disposal sites and legal dumps for solid communal wastes
is extremely low;
There is no monitoring of waste disposal sites and their impact on the
environment.
WE, THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
ON THE IMPACT OF PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS (POPs)
ON HUMAN HEALTH (Cheliabinsk, 3-4 March 2003):
express gratitude to UNEP Chemicals and Eco-Accord Centre on Environment
and Sustainable Development for initiating this workshop and sharing with its participants
valuable information on POPs and human health;
express gratitude to the Government of Canada for its support for this
project.
I.
Consider that there is a need in additional and more specific data on
what impacts are caused by each toxic;
Draw attention to the difficulties in access to information on
environment and human health in the towns where armaments industry plays a major role and
in the large-scale industrial factories;
Support the idea to popularize the outcomes of research on health of the
population in POPs polluted areas;
Consider it necessary to research in detail the levels of environmental
pollution and state of human health in the regions of Russia;
II.
Express our support to the groups which act to eliminate and reduce
stockpiles of POPs and other toxics worldwide;
Express our support to the groups which stand out against the
technologies that lead to the formation of POPs, in particular, the waste incineration
technologies;
Express our support to NGOs and other groups which analyze the levels of
POPs in food;
Express our support to NGOs and other groups which identify and
eliminate stockpiles of POPs, including stockpiles of obsolete pesticides and industrial
chemicals, and call on the authorities to help these groups in data collection and
identification of stockpiles;
Express out support to the groups which raise awareness of the general
public, local authorities and businesses:
- about the danger of POPs;
- about the level of environmental pollution from POPs;
- about POPs stockpiles, including stockpiles of obsolete pesticides;
- about technologies for POPs destruction;
- and on other issues connected with POPs pollution and POPs impact on health;
Recognize the need to organize informational meetings and workshops on
POPs pollution and impact on health with participation of experts from state authorities,
local authorities, businesses and NGOs.
III.
Support the action plan on chemicals of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development. At the same time, we believe that more specific targets and timeframes for
their implementation at local, regional, and national level are needed.
Call on the government of the Russian Federation to ratify the Stockholm
Convention on POPs in 2003;
Support the efforts of governmental bodies, non-governmental
organizations, science and business in the drafting of Russian national plan of
implementation of Stockholm Convention on POPs and in the preparatory process;
Support the efforts of international organizations (GEF, UNEP, UN ECE,
WHO and others) to draft international instruments and agreements aimed at reduction of
environmental pollution by dangerous toxic substances and minimization of their impact on
human health;
Support the initiatives and projects of UNEP, the Arctic Council and
other international organizations to support Russia in organizing an inventory of POPs and
obsolete pesticides in Russia;
Support the initiative of UNEP to support Russia in setting up pollutant
release and transfer registers in the pilot regions of Russia to serve as a mechanism
which ensures public access to important environmental information;
Support the need for Russia to sign and ratify the Protocol on Pollutant
Release and Transfer Registers to the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in
Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters;
THEREFORE, WE BELIEVE THAT THE FOLLOWING ISSUES ARE
IMPORTANT:
DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL BASIS
To ask the Members of Parliament from Cheliabinsk region to speed up the
adoption of the Law on the Status of Environmentally Unsafe Territories and Regulation of
Economic and Other Activities on Their Territories which is under consideration in the
State Duma, and to assign the citizens who reside in polluted areas the status of citizens
exposed to special level of risk;
To ask the Health Department of Cheliabinsk region to find ways to
increase the funding of public health sector, first of all in the territories of high
risk, taking into account the list of diseases common to those territories.
To ask the Ministry of Natural Resources and its territorial organ in
Cheliabinsk region to prepare a package of concrete activities to be included into
National Environmental Action Plan for the period of 2003-2005 into part 3.2 “Ensure
safety during potentially dangerous activities and situations”
To ask the Ministry of Natural Resources and its territorial organ to
draft a regional plan of implementation of Stockholm Convention in Cheliabinsk region to
be further included in the national plan of implementation of Stockholm Convention.
INVENTORY AND MONITORING OF POLLUTION
Non-governmental organizations of Cheliabinsk region should facilitate
public environmental monitoring of the development and implementation of projects in the
factories of the region aimed at the reduction of POPs and other toxic pollution in the
towns of the region, primarily in the areas of high risk and increased risk and in their
vicinity;
To ask the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Administration
of Cheliabinsk region to organize an inventory of dioxin sources in Cheliabinsk region,
taking into account existing experience in inventory of PCBs and pesticides; to create, on
the basis of these data, an integrated regional database with free public access;
To ask the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, its territorial organ
in Cheliabinsk region, and the Center for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Control of
Cheliabinsk region together with non-governmental organizations to develop an
environmentally safe waste management system (for solid municipal waste and industrial
waste of all classes of risk) in Cheliabinsk region.
To ask that the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, its territorial
organ and the Center for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Control of Cheliabinsk region
to initiate public hearings on construction of a waste incineration plant in Cheliabinsk,
which activities could drastically worsen the unsafe environmental situation in the town.
To ask the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, its territorial organ,
the Center for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Control of Cheliabinsk region together
with non-governmental organizations to work on the alternative methods of waste management
in Cheliabinsk (in order to avoid incineration), with a focus on recycling, and to
involve, when necessary, international organizations to exchange of experience and
information.
PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES IN CHELIABINSK REGION
To ask the Health Ministry of Russian Federation to include the
assessment of soil and food products pollution by dioxins in the towns of Cheliabinsk
region, primarily in the territories of high risk and territories of increased risk, into
the Programme of Implementation of the National Environment and Health Action Plan;
To ask the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, Russian Hydro
Meteorological Service and Administration of Cheliabinsk region to ensure systematic
monitoring of dioxins, PCBs and DDT in the drinking water and food products available to
the population in the towns of Cheliabinsk region;
To provide organized groups of children in Cheliabinsk region, primarily
in the territories of high risk and territories of increased risk, in particular from poor
families, with full nutrition, including the necessary amounts of protein and vitamins;
To ask the Administration of Cheliabinsk region to support the
initiative of Cheliabinsk Agriculture and Engineering University concerning the provision
of environmentally safe agricultural products, cultivated with the use of hydroponic
technilogies, to the territories of high risk and territories of increased risk in
Cheliabinsk region.
To involve the Agriculture and Engineering University in the activities
on rehabilitation of the areas polluted with heavy metals and POPs in the towns of
Karabash, Plast, Troitsk, and Kyshtym.
AWARENESS STRATEGY
To recommend to the Administration of Cheliabinsk region, the Center for
State Sanitary and Epidemiological Control of the region, enterprises and the public to
analyze the options and need for developing of a pollutant release and transfer register
in the region as a tool to provide information to all interested actors and organizations;
To recommend to the Administration of Cheliabinsk region, the Center for
State Sanitary and Epidemiological Control of the region, enterprises and the public in
the towns of Cheliabinsk region to analyze the options and need for developing local
pollutant release and transfer registers, paying prior attention to the territories of
high risk.
To organize regular information meetings of concerned groups of the
public in Cheliabinsk region, primarily in the territories of high risk and territories of
increased risk in Cheliabinsk region, with representatives of Russian state authorities
and international organizations for the purposes of intensive exchange of information on
the problems of pollution by POPs and other toxics.
To recommend to non-governmental organizations in the towns of
Cheliabinsk region to facilitate capacity building of new non-governmental organizations
on the issues of POPs and other toxics, paying prior attention to non-governmental
organizations in the territories of high risk in Cheliabinsk region.
DEVELOPMENT OF COOPERATION WITH REGIONS OF RUSSIA AND
WITH OTHER COUNTRIES
To strengthen cooperation with organizations that deal with POPs issues
in the New Independent States, in particular with organizations that occupy with raising
awareness on POPs, chemical safety, the impact of pesticides (including pesticides which
are POPs) on health, and the destruction of stockpiles of obsolete pesticides in
environmentally safe ways.
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