Awareness raising on the dangers of obsolete and pesticides POPs –Exhibition “Danger Obsolete Pesticides”

With the support of Mr. Wieslaw Kuc, Member of the European Parliament, a first exhibition “Danger Obsolete Pesticides” was organized at the EU Parliament in May 2008 in Brussels. IHPA has hereon initiated at a number of exhibitions in:

• 7th Annual Pesticide Stewardship Conference, The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance (TPSA), February 2007 Reno, USA
• 9th International HCH and Pesticides Forum, 20-22 September 2007, Chisinau, Moldova
• GEF Council meeting 12-16 November in Atrium of World Bank, Washington, USA
• UNIDO annual Meeting, Vienna, December 2007

This is the ideal way of bringing awareness to the both politicians and for the citizens in your country. If you want an impression of the exhibition please go to IHPA Gallery. If you are interested to have the exhibition in your country, please or if you want to sponsor the organisation of further exhibitions contact the Secretariat at john.vijgen@ihpa.info.
Direct sponsoring can also be done by: Pay Pal etc.

Dissemination of information on destruction of obsolete pesticides and pesticides POPs

IHPA works on the dissemination of information on the technologies for the destruction of obsolete pesticides – see special chapter on destruction technologies
In 2001, IHPA produced in the framework of a NATO/CCMS pilot study fellowship the report “Evaluation of Demonstrated and Emerging Remedial Action Technologies for the Treatment of Contaminated Land and Groundwater (Phase III)”. This NATO/CCMS Fellowship Report describes the current international development on pesticides seen in the framework of the POPs Convention (9 of the 12 POPs are pesticides), and a status of the “emerging technologies” related to remedial actions towards pollution problems caused by pesticides. The report contains 11 Fact Sheets of technologies examined that have been developed together with a series of annexes containing detailed information on the various projects on pesticides, PCB’s or related components. These Fact Sheets can be downloaded at IHPA Library

Additionally, IHPA has made available Japanese Pesticides Treatment Fact Sheets by Mr. Yukio Noma, Senior Researcher at National Institute for Environmental Studies, Research Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management, Ibaraki, Japan. The Japanese Fact Sheets can also be downloaded at the IHPA Library.

In 2005, IHPA has made for the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on technologies socalled seven POPs Technology Specification and Data Sheets. The Basel Convention Fact Sheets of 2005 can be downloaded at the IHPA Library.

Investigating the technology options for Disposing of obsolete Pesticide Stocks in Africa

There is an ongoing GEF funded, programme to clean up Africa’s stockpiles of obsolete pesticides. The Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP) intends to clean up the over 50,000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides – including POPs pesticides and heavily contaminated soils and equipment from all 53 African countries over the next 12-15 years.
The ASP is a multi-stakeholder programme comprising the World Bank, FAO, Pesticide Action Network, WWF and Croplife international. Whilst the primary focus of the programme is to clean up the existing stockpiles, there is also an emphasis on prevention activities to try to stop new obsolete stocks from developing.
The clean up of countries will be carried out in different phases. In the first phase, it has been envisaged that the obsolete stocks would be packed-up and made safe before being transported to Europe for destruction in high temperature incineration. As part of the ASP WWF has managed a project, over the last two years, to explore what options might exist for the destruction to be carried out safely in Africa, in compliance with international conventions such as Basel & Stockholm. The study was co-ordinated by Patrick Dyke. Several other technical experts contributed to the report including IHPA’s own John Vijgen. The Section “Disposal Technology Options – Review and Update of Technology”, was made by John Vijgen and Patrick Dyke

The report is available on the ASP website http://www.africastockpiles.net/
IHPA is presently working for the Basel Convention on the updating of 7 and the establishment of 7 new Data Sheets which presumably will become available at the end of 2008.

Further IHPA is involved in training activities on POPS destruction technologies for the Secretariat of the Basel Convention.

Organisation of International HCH and Pesticides Forum

Each second year IHPA organises together with an authority in one of the EECCA countries the forum that serves to help the country to move forward on the solutions of obsolete and POPs pesticides. From 1992 till 2009 IHPA has been organising successfully ten forums that have contributed to major changes in the countries that are confronted with the problems of obsolete pesticides.

For information on the previous forums please look at this website under HCH Forum:
• 1992 Zwolle , the Netherlands
• 1993 Magdeburg , Germany
• 1994 Bilbao , Spain
• 1996 Poznan , Poland
• 1998 Bilbao , Spain
• 2001 Poznan, Poland
• 2003, Kiev, Ukraine
• 2005, Sofia, Bulgaria
• 2007, Chisinau, Moldova
• 2009, Brno, Czech Republic

If you are interested to have the Forum organised in your country please contact the secretariat at john.vijgen@ihpa.info
Direct sponsoring can also be done by: Pay Pal etc

Activities for the Stockholm Convention

IHPA is and has been active to support countries for the works on the National Implementation Plan of the Stockholm Convention. IHPA works for the implementing Agencies FAO, UNEP, UNIDO and UNDP. Further is IHPA active to help to establish action plans and proposals for the countries in order to eliminate pesticides POPs and obsolete pesticides.

Elimination of obsolete pesticides and pesticides POPs

IHPA main objective is the definitive elimination of obsolete pesticides and pesticides POPs from the globe and therefore IHPA supports and has supported numerous countries in activities of National Implementation Plans (NIPs) specifically in training on preparation and execution of inventory and support of action plans for pesticides POPs.

Further is IHPA active in the management of clean-up of obsolete pesticides projects, such as has been executed in Romania and Albania.