Implementing the Stockholm Convention: An Increasingly Expensive Challenge

Persistent organic pollutants (POPS) as a class of pollutants have been the focus of international negotiations since the early 1990s. A POP is a chemical exhibiting several characteristics, including persistence and bioaccumulation once released in the environment, a propensity for long-range environmental transport, and adverse effects on human health and/or the environment. The Stockholm Convention on POPS, which entered into force in 2004, set out control measures for 12 POPS known as the “dirty

Introduction ............................................................................................................ 229 The Stockholm Convention....................................................................................230