IPEN

New law protects Anchorage streams, drinking water, and public health

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Last night, the Anchorage Assembly decided in a 10-1 vote to pass AO2017-59, an ordinance that establishes pesticide-free policies and restrictions for parks, public lands and properties. This measure strengthens the public’s right to know and fosters a healthy approach to caring for our parks and public lands that minimizes the use of harmful pesticides.

IPEN and colleagues in the European Union (EU) sent a letter to Representatives of the European Commission and EU Member States urging them to support decisions at the upcoming Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions' Conference of the Parties that uphold Convention principles and EU commitments to protect human health and the environment.

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At the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Conferences of the Parties (COP) in April 2017, key decisions will be made that define what is included as POPs waste. The definition will be based on a threshold concentration for a range of specific POPs (e.g. dioxin, PCBs, PFOS, etc.) and any waste containing more than that threshold concentration value will be defined as "POPs waste."’ Such POPs waste will be subject to measures as required under Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention to ensure that it is “Disposed of in such a way that the persistent organic pollutant content is destroyed or irreversibly transformed.”

Quezon City.  Twenty paint companies are now producing architectural, decorative and household (ADH) paints free of health-damaging lead-based-pigments, driers and anti-corrosion agents.

The EcoWaste Coalition, a chemical safety and zero waste watch group, revealed the good news after receiving written responses from paint manufacturers confirming their compliance with the three-year phase-out period for lead-containing ADH paints that ended last December 31, 2016.