Protocol To The 1979 Convention On Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution On Persistent Organic Pollutants

Presents the complete 1998 protocols of the 1979 convention that shaped international environmental law. Defines and charts pollution sources and emission control measures. Lacks references and an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, adopted in 1979, is the first international legally binding instrument to address problems of air pollution on a broad regional basis. Initially focused on problems of acidification and eutrophication, it now addresses a wider array of pollutants including ground-level ozone, persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals and, most recently, particulate matter. This Handbook contains the most recent versions of the Convention's eight protocols as these have been amended and/or adjusted to maintain their relevance to the work of the Convention and to accommodate new Parties.

Since the mid 1990s, legal action to eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) has started resulting in a global Convention on POPs, the Stockholm Convention, and a regional Protocol under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (UN-ECE LRTAP Convention). POPs are characterized by long half-lives, persistence in the environment, they undergo long-range transport, accumulate in the environment and in biota, and they are toxic. The combination of these characteristics makes them a threat at the global level. This book makes the reader familiar with the goals of these two conventions, lays out characteristics of these compounds, presents results from case studies and addresses inventories, levels in humans and the environment as well as technologies to destroy them.