127 Countries Adopt Toxic Chemicals Treaty

Delegates from 127 countries formally adopted a global treaty banning 12 highly toxic chemicals Tuesday, but the success was overshadowed by tension between the United States and Europe over environmental policies.

With the bang of a gavel, the pact on persistent organic pollutants--concluded in December in South Africa--was adopted by consensus after nearly two years of sometimes tense negotiations. A signing ceremony was scheduled for today.

“We must put a stop to the use of poisons which threaten plants, animals and the environment in which we live,” Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said in welcoming more than 500 delegates from 127 countries to the two-day signing conference.

The treaty is aimed at eventually eliminating all hazardous chemicals but lists 12 widely known as “the dirty dozen” for priority action.

The chemicals include PCBs and dioxins, plus DDT and other pesticides used in industry or created by improper waste disposal and shown to contribute to birth defects, cancer and other problems in humans and animals.

The treaty has been endorsed by President Bush, giving him an environmental reprieve with European leaders and environmentalists worldwide who have criticized his rejection of the 1997 global warming treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan.

But while praising the U.S. administration for its strong endorsement of the chemicals treaty, Swedish Environment Minister Kjell Larsson reiterated his disappointment over the beleaguered accord to reduce “greenhouse gas” emissions.

“It’s quite sad that we won’t be able apparently to get a strong common answer globally to the enormous challenge we are now facing in an area that is truly global--climate change,” Larsson told a news conference.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Whitman, in Stockholm to sign the chemicals treaty, said proposals for alternative measures to address climate change will be forthcoming. The Bush administration contends that the Kyoto treaty would harm the U.S. economy and would not win the congressional approval needed for ratification.