Urgent need to become more strategic

　Dangling from rear-view mirrors, often in pretty packages with smiley faces or sprayed generously in bedrooms and bathrooms, everywhere seems touched by the modern air-freshener.

　But while homes, offices and public places may seem sweet smelling are we just fooling ourselves--are we really living in a cleaner, healthier and less chemically hazardous world, especially for our children?

　I recently attended the G8 environment ministers meeting and was quite frankly riveted by presentations from the governments of Japan and the United States.

　Congenital abnormalities such as spina bifida and Down’s syndrome appear to have doubled over the past quarter century and immune system impairment has tripled among kindergarten to high school children over the last 20 years.

　Meanwhile rates of obesity, with a suspected link to disruption of young peoples’ metabolic and hormone systems, have climbed 150 per cent in 30 years and the number of boys being born has fallen since the 1970s.

　A wide ranging study, in conjunction with the Republic of Korea, is getting underway involving thousands of women and new-borns.

　The research will assess levels of substances such as lead, mercury and other heavy metals along with dioxins and other persistent organic pollutants set against social and genetic factors.

　The work will in many ways build on studies in the 1990s: this was when researchers first raised the red flag as to whether a very wide-range of man-made chemicals--many of which can travel in the atmosphere and in the oceans thousands of miles from where they are used or produced-- are affecting humans and wildlife in new and previously unthought-of ways.

　Some of these chemicals and their break-down products can mimic the female hormone oestrogen whereas others can block the male androgen hormones.

　The detection of hermaphrodite polar bear cubs on the Arctic island of Svalbard was linked to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pollutants from transformer fluids and degreasing agents once used in nuclear submarines.

　Other studies suggested a link between the breakdown products of, for example the pesticide DDT and a declining sperm count in males in developed economies over the past half century.

　The international response to the chemicals and related wastes challenge has focused on the establishment, under the auspices of UNEP, of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions.

　Under the Stockholm Convention for example a dozen persistent chemicals, including dioxins and DDT are scheduled for elimination and in May this year nine more were listed including other pesticides, flame retardants and commercial products.

　Progress is being made. DDT is still used by some countries for combating malaria-carrying mosquitoes because, it is argued, there is no alternative to the number one child killer.

　Now eight countries in Mesoamerica including Mexico have just completed a five-year project testing pioneering methods of controlling mosquitoes without the need for DDT.

　The results have been impressive: a 63 per cent reduction in malaria cases and a more than 86 per cent cut in ones linked with Plasmodium falciparum, the malarial parasite that causes the most severe kind of infection and the highest death rate globally.

　The project, a joint initiative by UNEP and the World Health Organization with funding from the Global Environment Facility, married rapid diagnosis and treatment with a range of non-DDT, community-based measures that included-

●treated bed nets; meshes on doors and windows; the planting of repellent trees like neem and oak and the liming of households

●Control of breeding sites by clearing vegetation, draining stagnant water channels and the use of biological controls such as fish and bacteria in some countries

●Elimination of sheltering places for mosquitoes through, for example the cleaning and tidying up of areas in and around homes alongside the promotion of personal hygiene

　Ten new projects involving some 40 countries in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia, are now being rolled out--perhaps a low, even zero DDT world may be in sight and countries can leave behind a chemical rooted in the scientific knowledge and simplistic options of a previous age.

　Meanwhile, at our last Governing Council governments gave the long awaited green light on negotiations for a legally-binding new treaty on the notorious heavy metal mercury.

　In order to catalyze faster and even more effective action, an historic decision has also been taken for all three chemicals and waste conventions I described above to meet ‘back to back’ at UNEP’s annual gathering of environment minister in early 2010 in Indonesia where we hope chemicals and waste agenda will be given high priority.

　There is also an urgent need to become not only more active but more strategic. Over the next decade and a half the global production of chemicals is set to increase by 85 per cent and thousands more new products are likely to hit the market.

　Therefore ticking off and listing chemicals one by one seems a tough task akin to painting Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo Bridge or Pearl Bridge.

　The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, coordinated by UNEP, is one inspiring approach towards a more holistic strategy.

　Under this, governments and industry have now agreed to work on five issues - nanotechnology, electronic-waste, lead in paint, chemicals in everyday products, and perfluorinated chemicals.

　Some of these such as lead in paints are, like DDT, old and outstanding issues whereas other are rapidly emerging ones.

　Nanotechnology, particles so small they are invisible to the human eye, is a case in point where we are on the frontier of both science and an international response.

　Releasing tiny particles as pest controllers in agriculture or as new ways of treating human illnesses may prove a blessing or a bane towards a more sustainable and healthy world.

　You may be able to recall thousands of Toyotas; Fords or Mercedes cars if the braking systems are faulty--but whether you can recall millions of invisible particles after they are released, remains one of the open questions in need of a robust answer.

　We also need an answer as to whether the world is serious about combating climate change--an answer that will come in some three months time when nations gather at the UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

　If they can Seal the Deal of a scientifically-credible and serious agreement it will put the world on track to combating the biggest challenge for this generation--and it will also play a part in improving children’s health in terms of chemicals in ways that only now are becoming apparent.

　The melting of the Arctic and of glaciers in mountains threatens sea level rise and increased water shortages over the coming decades.

　But it is now emerging that the same melting is triggering the re-release of many of the persistent organic pollutants and heavy metal compounds such as DDT that are being urgently assessed in the new Japanese and United States children’s health research.

　Meanwhile, new emissions of mercury--also being assessed in these children’s health studies-- are coming from increased coal-generation. If the world can transit to a low carbon economy, this will also cut emissions of this notorious heavy metal.

　There are abundant and unassailable reasons why the world needs a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy on a planet of six billion, rising to over nine billion by 2050.

　Combating climate change, achieving energy security, ensuring food supplies, maintaining the Earth’s life-support systems and generating decent jobs for the 1.3 billion under and un-employed to name but a few.

　We know too much today to simply continue with a business as usual approach. We have the knowledge, science and technologies to provide our children with a cleaner, greener and healthier future -- so let’s use them.