Strategies for eliminating and reducing persistent bioaccumulative toxic substances: common approaches, emerging trends, and level of success.

* Persistent bioaccumulative toxic substances (PBTSs) include the following substances:

-- some pesticides, such as aldrin;

-- some chemicals used in commerce, such as PCBs;

-- some products of incomplete combustion, such as dioxins and furans; and

-- some heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, and cadmium.

* PBTSs can remain in the environment for a long time without breaking down.

* They can bioaccumulate in human, animal, or fish tissues.

* Many animal species, especially top predators, can experience long-term cumulative exposures.

* PBTSs often migrate from one environmental medium to another.

* They often travel thousands of miles via long-range atmospheric transport to regions far from where they originally entered the environment.

* The unique risks posed by PBTSs were first acknowledged by the governments of the United States and Canada in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978.

* The article reviews the nine best-known strategies for eliminating and reducing PBTSs.

1. Ontario's Candidate Substances List for Bans and Phaseouts (1992):

-- The list identified 27 substances.

-- It did not lead directly to the ban or phaseout of any substances.

-- It did serve as a precedent for subsequent strategies.

2. Canada's multi-stakeholder Accelerated Reduction/Elimination of Toxics (ARET) program (1994):

-- The ARET program issued a challenge to Canadian industry to voluntarily eliminate releases of 30 PBTSs and to reduce releases of another 87 substances.

-- It also issued two short-term goals: To reduce emissions of PBTSs by 90 percent and to reduce all other emissions of toxic substances by 50 percent by 2000.

3. Canada's Toxic Substances Management Policy (TSMP) (1995):

-- The TSMP called for virtual elimination of persistent and bioaccumulative toxic substances that result predominantly from human activity.

-- It also called for management of other toxic substances throughout their lifecycles.

4. The Sound Management of Chemicals Initiative (1995):

-- In 1995, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America passed a resolution to improve the management of chemicals, giving priority to persistent, toxic substances of mutual concern to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The resolution called for the development of North American regional action plans (NARAPs).

-- NARAPs have been developed for six substances (DDT, chlordane, PCBs, mercury, dioxins/furans, and hexachlorobenzene).

5. Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (1997):

-- This strategy is based on the commitment to virtual elimination of certain toxics made by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978.

-- It targets 12 substances for virtual elimination ("Level 1" substances).

-- It also identifies 14 "Level 2" substances that are subject to pollution prevention activities.

-- It calls for cooperation between public and private partners.

6. U.S. EPA's National PBT Strategy: Working Draft (1998):

-- This strategy focuses on the 12 Level 1 substances addressed by the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy

-- It proposes to develop a national action plan for each one.

-- Only one plan has been finalized (for alkyl lead), and the strategy has never been finalized.

7. U.S. EPA's Waste Minimization Program (1998):

-- This program seeks to reduce or eliminate waste in manufacturing.

-- It focuses on 31 priority chemicals that are tracked through the Toxics Release Inventory.

-- The principal vehicle for achieving its goals is the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities.

-- The National Partnership for Environmental Priorities encourages public and private organizations to form voluntary partnerships with U.S. EPA to reduce the use or release of the 31 priority chemicals.

-- The goal is to reduce the amount of priority chemicals reported to the Toxics Release Inventory by 10 percent by 2008 (2001 is taken as the baseline year).

8. U.N. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (2001):

-- This convention requires the elimination or reduction of 12 persistent organic pollutants.

-- It also has a process for adding new chemicals to the list.

-- A financing mechanism is designed to help developing countries meet the obligations of the agreement.

-- The convention entered into force in 2004, after it had been signed and ratified by 50 countries.

-- At present, 114 countries have ratified the convention.

-- They do not include the United States, which has signed but not ratified the convention.

9. Washington State's PBT Rule (2006):

-- Washington is the first state to have a regulatory strategy for managing PBTSs as a category.

-- Several other states have strategies for individual PBTSs.

This department, Practical Stuff! originated from you, our readers. Many of you have expressed to us that one of the main reasons you read the Journal of Environmental Health is to glean practical and useful information for your everyday work-related activities. In response to your feedback, we dedicate this section to you with salient points to remember about two to three articles in each issue.