International Ocean Institute Training Programme

UNEP(OCA)/LBA/IG.2/7
Page 38
locations near and far from their source. POPs are typically characterized as having low water
solubility and high fat solubility. Most POPs are anthropogenic in origin. Anthropogenic emissions,
both point and diffuse, are associated with industrial processes, product use and applications, waste
disposal, leaks and spills, and combustion of fuels and waste materials. Once dispersed, clean-up
is rarely possible. Because many POPs are relatively volatile, their remobilization and longdistance
redistribution through atmospheric pathways often complicates the identification of
specific sources.
101. POPs have long environmental half-lives. Accordingly, successive releases over time result
in continued accumulation and the ubiquitous presence of POPs in the global environment.
102. The primary transport routes into the marine and coastal environment include atmospheric
deposition and surface run-off. Regional and global transport is predominately mediated by
atmospheric circulation, but also occurs through sediment transport and oceanic circulation.
Movement may also occur through a successive migration of short-range movements that result
from a sequence of volatilization, deposition, and revolatilization. Due to these transport patterns
and chemical characteristics, there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the systematic
migration of these substances to cooler latitudes.
103. The objective/proposed target is:
2. Objective/proposed target
(a) To reduce and/or eliminate emissions and discharges of POPs that threaten to accumulate
to dangerous levels in the marine and coastal environment;
(b) To give immediate attention to finding and introducing preferable substitutes for chemicals
that pose unreasonable and otherwise unmanageable risks to human health and the environment;
(c) To use cleaner production processes, including best available techniques, to reduce and/or
eliminate hazardous by-products associated with production, incineration and combustion (e.g.
dioxins, furans, hexaclorobenzene, poycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs));
(d) To promote best environmental practice for pest control in agriculture and aquaculture.
(a) National actions, policies and measures
3. Activities
104. Actions, policies and measures of States within their national capacities should include:
(a) Development, compilation and maintenance of inventories of point-source releases of
POPs, identification and assessment of diffuse sources and sinks from which POPs may
remobilize, and assessment of inputs from these sources as a basis for pollution control and
prevention measures;