IPEN

(Jakarta) A preliminary exploration of the impact of mercury use in three Indonesian artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities found that one-third of the people in one community satisfied WHO guidelines for mercury poisoning along with many children with birth defects, nervous system damage and delayed development. 

The Stockholm Convention established a science-based process for new persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the Stockholm Convention. The Convention recognizes that a lack of full scientific certainty should not prevent a candidate substance from proceeding in the evaluation or listing and clearly mandates Parties to decide on listing “in a precautionary manner.” This new Guide (English /русский /español / français / العربية) highlights three new candidates for listing in the Convention in 2015 - pentachlorophenol, hexachlorobutadiene, and chlorinated naphthalenes - and provides the POPs Review Committee's recommendation for which annex the POPs should be listed under in the Convention, the chemicals' uses, alternatives, adverse effects, and more. 

A new booklet titled, "Eliminate Lead Paint: Protect Children's Health" has been released in conjunction with the African Lead Paint Elimination Project. This booklet introduces the serious and irreversible effects of lead on human health, and outlines how people can be exposed to lead, the economic impacts of lead paint exposur

IPEN worked with members of Rotary International to bring the story of lead paint to participants in Rotary’s South Asia Literacy Summit held in Pune, India in early February 2015. Dr. Deepak Purohit, Rotary Past District Governor, organized a booth on lead in paint. He also set up meetings with leading Rotarians and a delegation – Satish Sinha, Toxics Link; Leslie Onyon, World Health Organization; and Dr. Archana Patel, International Pediatric Association – who travelled to Pune for the event.