Abstract :
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are grouped on the basis of a common characteristic, i.e. persistence in the environment, longer than that required for their intended use. The 12 POPs, all are chlorinated compounds, they are pesticides; aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex and toxaphene. Recently in the Fifth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention was held from 25 to 29 April 2011, The Parties agreed to list endosulfan in Annex A to the Convention, which rise the number of POP`s products to 13, and 10 of them are insecticides.www.pops.int. The industrial chemicals polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene, which is also a pesticide; and the unintended by-products of combustion and industrial processes, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, numbering 210 congeners, were never produced commercially, and have no intended use. None of the ten chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides is presently recommended for the use in agriculture. Although many incidents of their misuse on food and cases of acute toxic exposure are still being reported. In public health programmes, only a few persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides are still being used in various countries, especially DDT in vector disease control, chlordane in termite control and aldrin in locust control, but their use is in constant decline, either because of voluntary withdrawal, or due to legal action. Over the past several years, the risks posed by POPs have become of increasing concern to many countries, resulting in actions to protect human health and the environment being taken or proposed at the national level, the regional level and more recently, in international initiatives.Overall the global objective the Middle East countries need assistant to improve their pesticide and pest management and the management of the industrial chemicals in general, and elimination of existing POPs obsolete pesticide stocks, also help to prevent the creation of obsolete POPs products and reduce the adverse impacts of POPs chemicals on health and the environment in the future.
