The Dangers of Modern Magic

29 April 2019 (UN Environment)* — In the world before modern medicine it was up to the local shaman, monk or wise woman to treat injury and disease, often with remedies based on local medicinal plants.

“Once PCBs are released into the environment, they don’t break down,” Touni says. “These chemicals vaporize and can travel long distances, contaminating soil and water and accumulating in the fatty tissues of people and animals. The ubiquitous presence of low levels of dispersed PCBs means exposure reaches well beyond people living near polluted sites, making these chemicals a real threat to life and biological diversity, with links to conditions from reproductive impairments to endocrine effects and immune system changes.”

Today, the damaging reach of PCBs has never been clearer, with the pollutants found in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean–the 10-kilometre-deep Mariana trench, while a 2018 study has revealed that the chemicals threaten up to 50 per cent of the world’s killer whale populations.

Along with working through the project to enable countries around the region to meet the Stockholm Convention targets of phasing out the use of PCBs by 2025—and safely disposing of remaining stocks by 2028—the Africa Institute and national government partners are spreading the word on the dangers of PCBs, putting an end to practices like unprotected metal reclamation from transformers and the theft and sale of PCB oils.

“The main problem we face regarding PCBs is exposure to contaminated equipment or when PCBs are not stored correctly,” van Zuydam says. “People also steal oil from the storage facility as they believe it cures diseases.”

For van Zuydam and her colleagues, the risk of PCBs goes beyond their supposedly ‘magical’ properties—making internationally supported efforts to contain and dispose of these chemicals all the more vital.

“Workers within the utilities are at risk because they work with equipment likely to contain PCBs. The same applies to community members living around the area where PCBs are stored,” she says.

“School children are exposed too, because they play in the grounds near infrastructure with PCBs. People working in ports or at border gates can be exposed when they receive contaminated material for import or export.”

PCBs might be hard to free ourselves from entirely, but ultimately, van Zuydam believes that knowledge—not magic—is the key to a non-toxic future.“For communities, it’s important to raise awareness. We need to let them know when they are at risk and when they are not.”

Focusing on “Clean Planet, Healthy People: Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste“, the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-14), the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention (RC COP-9) and the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-9) are taking place in Geneva from April 29 to May 10 2019.

*SOURCE: UN Environment. Go to ORIGINAL. 2019 Human Wrongs Watch