industry and environment - DTIE

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Chemicals management The current range of genetically modified crops has been developed in Northern countries for the agricultural systems operating there. The main thrust has been to produce crops that are herbicide-tolerant (allowing simplified weed control) or that contain insecticides to confer protection against a range of pests, or both of these traits. This fits with current practices and has produced encouraging results in many countries. The technology itself is being adopted very rapidly, with the global area growing from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 67.7 million hectares in 2003 (Figure 3). The benefits from biotechnology could be enormous. It has the capacity to speed up breeding programmes, create crops that are resistant to pests and disease, improve the nutritional value of crops, and provide crops that can survive and thrive in hostile environments. Delivering these benefits relies on the technology being presented to end users in an appropriate form, at an acceptable price and with the knowledge and skills required to utilize the technology. These are not dissimilar to requirements for conventional crop management. Therefore, many of the problems with implementing existing technologies may well apply to biotechnology. It may be that genetically modified crops are easier to distribute, as the seeds will contain the trait and there will be no need to apply additional components as there was in the first Green Revolution. However, this requires a reliable distribution network, which is often lacking in the countries that most need to improve production. If the potential benefits are examined, it can be seen that they are potentially wide-ranging. The following examples show how GM technology can be applied to specific agricultural problems. Pest resistance Specific resistance to a particular pest is obviously beneficial to farmers. They will either be able to grow the crop where they couldn’t before, or be able to reduce the amount of pesticide that they use to control it. Crops containing insect resistance genes from Bacillus thuringiensis confer protection to a range of lepidopterous pests. This has significantly reduced the quantity of insecticide used in cotton crops in the United States, where 1million kilograms less insecticide was used in 1999 compared with 1998. Reports indicate that the introduction of Bt cotton into China has reduced the number of sprays from 20 to seven per season in many parts of the country. However, there are reports that some farmers still spray up to 22 times even if the modified crop is being grown. Whether this technology can be trans- Mexico’s success in eliminating chlordane within a regional cooperation framework Mario Yarto, Director of Research on Chemical Substances and Ecotoxicological Risks, National Institute of Ecology-SEMARNAT, Periferico 5000, 4 th floor, Col. Insurgentes Cuicuilco, Mexico City 04530, Mexico (myarto@ine.gob.mx) A well-known group of chemicals are classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). 1 Their properties include high toxicity, persistence in the environment, long-range transport in the atmosphere, and accumulation in fatty tissue. Direct contact with POPs can result in acute effects; accidents with POPs used as pesticides, for example, have killed agricultural workers or made them seriously ill. Chlordane, a pesticide classified as a POP, was widely used in the past to control insect pests in crops and forests. It also had domestic and industrial applications, including termite control in wood and wood products. It has been designated a probable human carcinogen. High levels can damage the nervous system or liver. Chlordane is also known to affect the endocrine system and digestive system. It can cause behavioural disorders in children exposed before birth or while nursing. Exposure to chlordane may occur due to eating contaminated foods or exposure to contaminated soil. It has been shown to be toxic to non-target species, including birds, fish, bees and earthworms. Member countries of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) agreed that there was sufficient evidence to warrant international action on POPs, including chlordane (IFCS/Forum-II/97). This was the basis for a decision of the UNEP Governing Council in January 1997 to the effect that a legally binding international instrument for the control of POPs should be developed. Development of a Regional Action Plan Chlordane was originally introduced into Mexico and many other countries for extensive use in agriculture. In recent years, however, use of this pesticide has been limited to termite control in certain wood products. Chlordane use was one of the first targets of the Sound Management of Chemicals (SMOC) initiative of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). In 1997 a North American Regional Action Plan (NARAP) on chlordane was approved by the governments of Mexico, Canada and the United States, with the goal of phasing out registered uses by 1998. In developing a NARAP for chlordane, the Parties involved committed to ongoing cooperative activities and annual reporting on the progress made. The reports were subsequently made public and forwarded to the Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The Parties also continued their commitment to the principle of prior informed consent (PIC): if an importing country does not consent to import a chemical substance, the exporting country has the obligation to inform the exporting industry of that decision and take appropriate legislative and administrative measures to ensure that export does not occur. The NARAP for chlordane was intended to be the basis of a coordinated regional contribution to these international initiatives. A number of specific regulatory and administrative actions were included: 1. The United States encouraged industry to voluntarily phase out chlordane production; 2. Canada and the US worked closely with Mexico to provide available risk assessments concerning suitable alternatives to chlordane; 3. Canada and the US continued to provide support for hazardous waste collection programmes that included chlordane. Information on these programmes was shared with Mexico, which administered its own hazardous waste collection programme; 4. All three countries reported publicly available data on chlordane use, production, import and export; 5. Canada, Mexico and the US produced annual reports on progress achieved under the NARAP. Implementation and benefits After production ended in the United States, the next step was to find out how much chlordane was being used in Mexico and where. Canadian and US agencies came to Mexico in order to demonstrate the best and cheapest ways to test for chlordane and monitor its use. They shared detailed information on the elimination of its use and on which regulations had been effective. The CEC also set up workshops to explain the dangers of chlordane and present alternatives. For example, heating furniture above certain temperatures kills termites just as effectively as spraying with a noxious chemical. Mexico imported 212.8 tonnes of chlordane between 1992 and 1996, all from the US. Use of chlordane in Mexico is currently illegal. This means that the use, commercialization, import and formulation of chlordane and of its active ingredient are prohibited by law. Its phase-out is now complete, as the only company holding a chlordane active ingredient registration stopped importing it in 1997 and had no stocks by 1999. Apparently, no pesticides containing chlordane were imported at that time. Another factor in the success of this programme is that it encouraged optimism about similar low-cost efforts in the future. Apart from a few grants to Mexico for some studies, the bulk of the work consisted of exchanging expertise and techniques, with information dissemination and capacity-building actions. What also made this easier was the fact that Mexico had begun to control the use of chlordane. By 1997 this was limited to urban use to control termites, mainly in houses. However, completely ending chlordane’s use took several more years and required mutual help across the continent. 30 ◆ UNEP Industry and Environment April – September 2004
Chemicals management ferred easily to developing countries is not yet certain. Resistance to pests in the US may not confer resistance to indigenous pests in developing countries. The other dimension is that pests have been shown to develop resistance to Bt crops if their use is not managed properly. Improvements in yield and stress tolerance Much of the benefit of the first Green Revolution came about through the development of highyielding dwarf varieties. The genes responsible for dwarfing have now been isolated and can be incorporated into other crops to achieve the same increased yields. In many regions of the world there are constraints on where crops can be grown since these regions have highly alkaline, acidic or saline soils. Genes conferring resistance have been isolated from plants such as mangroves and are being inserted into crop varieties to enable them to be grown in saline soils. This has the potential to reclaim large areas of land that have been made saline by poor irrigation practices. Improvements in nutrition GM technology not only has the ability to produce plants that address many production problems. It also has the potential to improve nutritional quality. One widely known example is the so-called “Golden Rice”, which has been engineered to produce higher levels of beta-carotene as a precursor to vitamin A, which could help treat deficiencies in children living in the tropics. There can be little doubt that GM technology has the potential to meet the world’s food demands, but a number of questions still remain partially or totally unanswered. Many people are concerned about the potential for the spread of modified genes into the environment, either creating “super weeds” or polluting the genetic material of wild plants. Herbicide-tolerant plants can generally be controlled with conventional herbicides other than the one to which they are resistant. Whether the modified material will make its way into the native flora is less certain. The limited number of species that have been modified, and their relatively limited distribution, have not really produced sufficient information to make a decision. There is a need to monitor the situation very carefully, especially where plants are being used in their centre of origin and gene flow may be easier. Human safety is also of concern since genetic modifications could lead to allergies or worse. However, over half a million hectares of GM crops have The main elements of the integrated pest management (IPM) strategy developed as part of the regional cooperation plan were: 1. biological control (use of species of bacteria such as Bacillus thuringiensis; use of fungi, including Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana); 2. physical barriers such as sand traps for underground termite control; 3. baits such as food or substances used to attract, entice or lure termites to a desired location. The baiting technique involves the use of a “bait station” on which the termites aggregate and continue to feed once they have found the bait station. The safer chemical alternatives identified were chlorpirifos (Dursban), deltamethrin, permethrin (Dragnet), cypermethrin, and fipronil (Termidor). In developing and implementing this programme there were a few challenges along the way, including: 1. lack of a detailed inventory of quantities used at the start of the Regional Action Plan; 2. difficulty in finding the resources to gather monitoring and follow-up data; 3. lack of enforcement instruments to measure success. Mexico also took several steps with wider implications on its own initiative, showing that the government was becoming more environmentally conscious. One of the first steps was to ban the import of chemicals that were prohibited in the producing country. Mexico thereby recognized the need to stop companies from turning to export markets when their products were deemed dangerous at home. Studies were also carried out for the first time on chlordane use in Mexico and its effects on birds, fish and worms. Contamination in these animals, although they are lower down on the food chain, quickly makes its way to humans. The NARAP included a three-phase regulatory programme specific to Mexico, which has resulted in the effective implementation of actions within the regional plan. This programme has also had positive benefits through reducing exposure to chlordane. Among the actions taken have been: 1. development of an integrated control strategy including a pesticide lifecycle analysis, identification of alternatives to chlordane and government support for research; 2. encouragement of stakeholders to participate in the development of control strategies and the identification of safer alternatives; 3. a ban on imports of pesticides whose use is prohibited by the exporting country; 4. limits on sales to authorized, trained personnel and restrictions regarding their use; 5. making information on the NARAP’s scope and purpose available to the public; 6. prohibition of the sale of technical and active ingredients for making chlordane; 7. environmental monitoring and risk assessment to establish a baseline. Conclusions The North American Regional Action Plan on Chlordane can be considered a successful tri-national cooperation exercise, designed to curtail release to the environment of a toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative substance at the regional level. As a result of these NARAP activities, chlordane is no longer registered for use or manufactured in Canada, Mexico or the United States. Mexico’s institutional capacities for monitoring and analyzing chemicals in the environment have been strengthened in terms of information systems for toxic substances and actions to reduce the risks of toxic substances. The design and implementation of a chlordane sampling and analysis plan for Mexico is included under the Regional Action Plan on Monitoring and Assessment, currently under development. This experience has demonstrated the great benefits of regional cooperation when priority is given to the management and control of substances of mutual concern that are persistent and toxic. The authorities are now confident enough to say publicly that Mexico has eliminated chlordane use completely. To ensure that chlordane levels continue to decrease over time, follow-up recommendations have been made to report on chlordane levels and activities by means of continued monitoring and surveillance of illegal trade. Current field studies at selected sites in Mexico are being coordinated by the National Institute of Ecology. These studies are geared towards measuring a number of POPs (including chlordane) as part of the follow-up recommendations. Furthermore, and in compliance with international initiatives such as the Basel and Stockholm Conventions, Mexico has had the opportunity to take advantage of this regional cooperation and share the experience and expertise gained. References Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) (1997) North American Regional Action Plan on Chlordane. Montreal, Canada. Moody, J. (2003) North America eliminates use of Chlordane, in: Trio Newsletter. Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Montreal, Canada. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (2002) Ridding the World of POPS: A guide to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Geneva, Switzerland (http://portalserver.unepchemicals.ch/Publications/SCGuideRidWPOPs.pdf) Yarto, M., A. Gavilan and J. Barrera (2003) El Convenio de Estocolmo sobre Contaminantes Orgánicos Persistentes y sus implicaciones para México, in: Gaceta Ecológica, Vol. 63. Mexico. 1. See www.chem.unep.ch/pops. UNEP Industry and Environment April – September 2004 ◆ 31
Page 1 and 2: UNEP ISSN 0378-9993 Industry and En
Page 3 and 4: E d i t o r i a l Balancing the ben
Page 5 and 6: Chemicals management priority basis
Page 7 and 8: Chemicals management Global strateg
Page 9 and 10: Chemicals management The Rotterdam
Page 11 and 12: Chemicals management Chemicals subj
Page 13 and 14: Chemicals management Figure 2 Test
Page 15 and 16: Chemicals management substances wit
Page 17 and 18: Chemicals management they may migra
Page 19 and 20: Chemicals management Integrated che
Page 21 and 22: Chemicals management ◆ supporting
Page 23 and 24: Chemicals management The Montreal P
Page 25 and 26: Chemicals management Softening the
Page 27 and 28: The future of pesticide use in worl
Page 29: Chemicals management The first Dani
Page 33 and 34: Effects of an environmental tax on
Page 35 and 36: Chemicals management the prices of
Page 37 and 38: Chemicals management The Africa Sto
Page 39 and 40: Chemicals management The evolution
Page 41 and 42: Chemicals management potential, how
Page 43 and 44: Chemicals management Cleaner produc
Page 45 and 46: Chemicals management gases such as
Page 47 and 48: Chemicals management Implementation
Page 49 and 50: Chemicals management Aliphatic comp
Page 51 and 52: Chemicals management its recovery);
Page 53 and 54: Chemicals management Figure 1 Drum-
Page 55 and 56: Chemicals management Annual energy
Page 57 and 58: Chemicals management GREENPEACE/MOR
Page 59 and 60: Chemicals management the dirtier op
Page 61 and 62: Chemicals management and cleaning o
Page 63 and 64: Chemicals management Achievements o
Page 65 and 66: Chemicals management Transparency a
Page 67 and 68: Chemicals management Communication
Page 69 and 70: Other topics promoting and establis
Page 71 and 72: Other topics Training courses The C
Page 73 and 74: Other topics 4. Identification of I
Page 75 and 76: Other topics Technical consideratio
Page 77 and 78: N e w s plagued industrialized coun
Page 79 and 80: N e w s ered paper to make their pr
Page 81 and 82:
N e w s Saving the world’s seas a
Page 83 and 84:
N e w s Measuring Your Company’s
Page 85 and 86:
N e w s Responsible Care Canadian C
Page 87 and 88:
THE UNEP DIVISION OF TECHNOLOGY, IN
show all

industry and environment - DTIE

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?