The Chinese government has drafted a plan to phase out the world's most toxic chemicals, an official with the country's top environmental watchdog said in Beijing yesterday.
The phaseout is required by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
"The plan sets the target for the country to control, reduce and eliminate persistent organic pollutants," said Yue Ruisheng, deputy director of the International Department of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
He said the plan would be submitted to the State Council, China's Cabinet, for approval. Under the Stockholm Convention, China must submit its national implementation plan to the convention's secretariat by December 11.
China signed the Stockholm convention in 2001 and it came into effect here in November 2004.
"We have an overall picture on the production, circulation and import and export of POPs such as pesticides," he said. "We also have listed major enterprises that emit dioxins."
The SEPA has drawn up a list of the storage sites and dumping grounds of polychlorinated biphenols as well as places polluted by PCBs, he said.
The convention requires all parties to take necessary steps to ban the production and use of some of the most toxic chemicals.
The 12 initial POPs are aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor mirex, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenols, hexachlorobenzene, dioxins and furan.
Chinese industries still produce and use chlordane, mirex and DDT. Many transformers and capacitors containing PCBs are awaiting safe disposal.
Meanwhile, the amount of dioxins generated in such processes as paper-making, metal production and waste incineration is also significant.
Waste POPs and places polluted by such chemicals are widespread in the country.
The SEPA would step up supervision of enterprises discharging POPs and eliminate outdated industrial products while developing substitute technologies, he said.
POPs are considered the most dangerous substances released by human activity. They are linked to cancer, allergies and hypersensitivity, damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, reproductive disorders, and disruption of the immune system.
The United Nations Environment Program says every person in the world carries traces of POPs in his or her body.