Environmental Pollution Pops
Environmental Pollution Pops
Environmental Pollution Pops
(PERSISTENT
ORGANIC
POLLUTANTS)
WHAT ARE "POPs" ?
Synthetic organic chemicals - pesticides, others are industrial products
or unintended by-products resulting from industrial processes or
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
combustions
Persistent in environment - it may take them decennia or centuries to
be degraded.
Long-range transport leads to global pollution - almost always be
found if tested for in tissues or environmental samples from different parts
of the world
Lipophilic - they have a tendency to remain in fat-rich tissues
Accumulate in food chain - enter into a cycle in nature
High levels in fish and marine mammals - consumption by seals of
fish contaminated with POPs
Acute toxicity well characterized - organochlorine pesticides (e.g.
aldrin, dieldrin and toxaphene)
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
(POPs)
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
crops
DDT(Dichlorodiphe protection from malaria, typhus, and other known toxic effect of DDT is egg-shell thinning
nyl trichloroethane) diseases spread by insects among birds, especially birds of prey
DIELDRIN control termites, textile pests, insect- -toxic to fish and other aquatic animals, particularly
borne diseases and insects living in frogs, whose embryos can develop spinal
agricultural soils deformities after exposure to low levels
-Parkinson’s disease, immune & reproductive
ENDRIN -sprayed on the leaves of crops such as Nervous system, toxic to aquatic organism
cotton and grains
-control rodents such as mice and voles
HEPTACHLOR used to kill soil insects and termites adverse behavioral changes and reduced
reproductive success/human carcenogen
MIREX -combat fire ants, and it has been used -possible human carcinogen
against other types of ants and termites -toxic to several plant species and to fish and
-used as a fire retardant in plastics, crustaceans
rubber, and electrical goods
TOXAPHENE -used on cotton, cereal grains, fruits, nuts, Damage to lungs, nervous system, kidney
and vegetables
-used to control ticks and mites in
livestock
Annex B: INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS
Hexachlorobenzene kills fungi that affect food crops -photosensitive skin lesions, colic, and debilitation,
(HCB) passes HCB thru the placenta and breast milk
-reproductive and immune function,
Annex C: BY PRODUCTS
Polychlorinated produced unintentionally due to including immune and enzyme disorders and
dibenzo-p-dioxins incomplete combustion, as well during chloracne, and they are classified as possible
(PCDD) the manufacture of pesticides and human carcinogens
other chlorinated substances -cancer, teeth abnormality, thyroid disorder and
diabetes
Polychlorinated produced unintentionally from many of structurally similar to dioxins and share many of
dibenzofurans the same processes that produce their toxic effects
(PCDF) dioxins, and also during the cancer, teeth abnormality, thyroid disorder and
production of PCBs diabetes
PERSISTENT ORGANIC
POLLUTANTS
DISTRIBUTION OF PERSISTENT
ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
AN EXAMPLE: PCBs
Widely used, released into the environment
Caused mass-poisoning episodes
Effects in animals: reproductive, immune, carcinogenic
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
EXPOSURE
ROUTES OF
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
PERSISTENT ORGANIC
POLLUTANTS RECOMMENDATIONS
Policy Issuances:
QUESTIONS??