LEAD ADDITIVES FOR GASOLINE, DEADLY PESTICIDE TARGETED FOR TRADE WATCH LIST

LEAD ADDITIVES FOR GASOLINE, DEADLY PESTICIDE TARGETED FOR TRADE WATCH LIST

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 2 February (United Nations Environment Programme) -- The Interim Chemical Review Committee of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade will hold its fifth and final meeting at the Geneva International Conference Centre from 2 to 6 February.

The Committee is expected to recommend adding the gasoline additives tetraethyl lead and tetramethyl lead and the pesticide parathion to the Rotterdam Convention’s prior informed consent (PIC) list.  Inclusion in the PIC list would allow importing countries to decide which of these potentially hazardous chemicals they want to receive and to exclude those they cannot manage safely.

The recommendations will be forwarded for adoption to the eleventh session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-11), which will be held in Geneva on 18 September 2004.  The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties, which will follow immediately from 20 to 24 September 2004, also in Geneva, will decide on including chemicals in the Convention that have been added during the interim PIC procedure.

While health concerns have led many governments to phase out leaded gasoline, it is still available in many developing countries.  Over 70 per cent of the lead in gasoline enters the environment immediately after combustion.  Chronic lead poisoning can lead to anorexia, constipation and fatigue, while severe poisoning can produce impaired kidney function, heart damage, mental retardation, convulsion, coma and death.  In young children, relatively low blood lead levels cause neurological and behavioural changes, including hyperactivity, lower learning capacity, reduced attention span, fearfulness, and general regression.

Parathion, an organophosphorus pesticide, is used to control moths, aphids and other insects that damage fruit and vegetable crops.  Parathion poisoning can cause nausea, vomiting, excessive sweating, headache, tightness in the chest, laboured breathing, dizziness, muscle cramps, difficulty in walking, convulsions, diarrhoea, wheezing, abdominal cramps, unconsciousness, coma, respiratory failure and death.

This week's meeting will also request the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) to assess any potential health impacts of certain possible alternatives to chrysotile asbestos.  A meeting last September agreed that all other forms of asbestos should be included in the PIC list, but a decision on chrysotile, which accounts for some 94 per cent of world asbestos consumption, has been postponed until INC-11.

For more information, please visit www.pic.int or contact:

-- Michael Williams, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Information Officer in Geneva, tel.: (+41 22) 9178 242/244/196, fax: 797 3460, e-mail: michael.williams@unep.ch;

-- Erwin Northoff of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, tel.: (+3906) 5705 3105, fax: 5705 4974, e-mail: erwin.northoff@fao.org; or

-- Jim Sniffen, Information Officer, UNEP New York, tel.: +1-212-963-8094/8210, e-mail: info@nyo.unep.org, Web site: www.nyo.unep.org.

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