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DECEMBER 5, 2000

Final negotiations on a globally binding treaty that would ban 12 highly toxic chemicals began on Monday in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In preparation for a treaty scheduled to be signed next May, the fifth and final meeting brings together about 600 delegates representing more than 120 countries. Their primary targets are the "dirty dozen," a group of chemical pollutants which have been linked to cancer, death, and birth defects.

For indigenous populations, the chemicals, also known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pose a significant problem. Native American environmental activists like Charlotte Caldwell of the Indigenous Environmental Network are in South Africa this week and point out the subsistence lifestyle of many Natives puts them at greater risk to POPs.

"They affect all living things on Mother Earth. They build up through the food chain, they affect our people, and they are even affecting unborn children," said Caldwell on Native America Calling yesterday.

In particular, a group of pollutants known as dioxins pose a double risk to Natives. Dioxins build up in traditional, high-fat foods such as caribou, fish, and marine mammals and then in the fat of humans who consume them. Recent studies of Inuit mothers in Canada, for example, show that their milk has twice the level of contaminants than those reported in southern Canada and the United States.

Yet most of the pollutants come from elsewhere. An October study pointed out that, in one year alone, 70 to 82 percent of the dioxin in the Inuit territory of Nunavut came from the United States, emphasizing the need for the international negotiations on the issue.

"Its very important that they are stopped at the global level because they travel long distances," said Caldwell.

This week, the delegates will focus on exactly how to ban and reduce the use of the chemicals, which include pesticides and industrial byproducts. The treaty is expected to include exemptions, such as the use of DDT to fight malaria in developing countries.

Related Stories:
Alaska Natives call for toxin study (Enviro 10/13)
Scientists trace Arctic pollution to US (Enviro 10/4)
Dioxins are everywhere (Enviro 10/4)

Relevant Links:
How POPs threaten the Natural Environment and the Future of Indigenous Peoples - www.ienearth.org/pops_threat-p1.html
The Indigenous Environmental Network - www.ienearth.org
Native America Calling - www.nativecalling.org
Contaminants in Alaska - www.state.ak.us/dec/deh/contaminants.htm
Persistent Organic Pollutants, the United Nations - irptc.unep.ch/pops