Where chemicals are found in elevated concentrations
in biological fluids such as breast milk, they should be
removed from the market immediately.

UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (2003)


DDT, PCBs and dioxins are among the most hazardous – and
most researched – man-made chemicals that have ever
been brought into our environment. These, along with a
number of other chlorinated pesticide chemicals, have been
officially classified as POPs (persistent organic pollutants)
under the global Stockholm Convention, and are largely
banned from intentional production and use. This United
Nations Convention was adopted in 2001 and entered into
force in May 2004.

Lost and found:
persistent organic pollutants
However, these twelve chemicals and chemical groups,
sometimes referred to as the ‘dirty dozen’, make up only a
small percentage of the total number of POPs. Many other
persistent organic chemicals are still manufactured and
used as ingredients in products for industrial, agricultural
and/or consumer use. Chemicals like brominated flame
retardants, alkylphenols, artificial musks and phthalates
have become, as a result of their extensive use, widely
distributed through the environment. They have even been
found in regions and animals thought to be remote from
sources of chemical contamination. For example, various
brominated chemicals used as flame retardant additives in
plastics and textiles have been found in the bodies of polar
bears, wild falcons, sperm whales and human beings.
Recent research indicates that hazardous chemicals can
escape from consumer products during daily use, either
directly to the air or in the form of contaminated dusts
(Greenpeace Netherlands 2001 and 2003, Santillo et al.
2003a).

Ongoing presence

Though deliberate production and use of the ‘dirty dozen’
POPs have been banned or severely restricted worldwide,
these chemicals, in common with many still in use, are
persistent. They do not easily break down or biodegrade and
therefore remain in the environment for many decades with
the concentrations declining only slowly, if at all. In 2003,
WWF conducted a study of chemical contaminants in the
blood of 155 volunteers in the UK, a country where PCBs
were banned as far back as the 1970s (WWF-UK 2003).
The continuing presence of PCBs in their blood illustrates
how long persistent chemicals remain in the environment
and what we might expect from other persistent chemicals
such as brominated flame retardants.
© Topham/ANP