UN announces chemical blacklist

[dArKeR]

By Alister Doyle


Oslo - A "dirty dozen" of industrial chemicals blamed for causing deaths and birth defects will be outlawed from Monday by a United Nations pact with many experts wanting other poisons added to the blacklist.

Inuit hunters in Canada, among those most exposed because many toxins are swept to the Arctic by ocean and air currents, plan to celebrate the ban with a feast of whale, seal stew, fish and caribou in Iqaluit, Baffin Island.

The 2001 Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) enters into force on May 17 after ratifcation by 50 states, ending use of a range of pesticides, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

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