Page 4 - Policy brief on persistent organic pollutants in Indian environment: A wake-up call for concerted action
P. 4
Policy Brief

1989, which are part of the Environment (Protection) Act, in this matter offer a unique opportunity to review
1986. As mentioned earlier, major sources of emissions existing approaches to the regulation and management
of PCBs in India are power generation, steel mining, and of chemicals to meet the challenge of reducing the risk
production of cement, fertilizers, and lubricants as well to the environment and to people from the multitude of
as the ship-breaking industry (MoEF 2011), and, at one harmful chemicals that continue to enter the environment
time, inventories recorded about 10 000 tonnes of PCBs in large amounts.
(MoEF 2011). The Government of India also developed
an action plan to comply with the obligations of Article Box 3: Priorities and strategies in India’s National Implementation Plan
5 of the SC, related to the release of polychlorinated on Persistent Organic Pollutants
dibenzodioxins and furans (PCDDs/Fs); the quantities
of PCDDs/Fs released during 2009–10 were estimated ƒƒ Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs
at about 9000 g of toxic equivalent quality (TEQ), ƒƒ Environmentally sound management of medical wastes
the major sources being incineration of waste (66%), ƒƒ Development and promotion of non-POPs alternatives to DDT
production of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, heat and ƒƒ Implementation of the best available technology and the best
power generation (MoEF 2011).
environmental practices and strategies for eliminating uninten-
On 13 January 2006, the Government of India ratified tional emissions of POPs from the priority industry sectors identi-
the SC. As a party to the convention, India is active in fied in the NIP
developing and promoting non-POPs alternatives to ƒƒ Management of PVC plastic waste to avoid incineration or dump-
reduce intentional and unintentional emissions of POPs. ing into landfills to prevent the release of dioxins and furans due
The manufacture, use, and import into India of most to burning
of the pesticides that are listed as POPs in the SC are ƒƒ Capacity building; demonstration of production and promotion
banned under the Insecticide Act, 1968 and Insecticide of bio-botanical neem-derived bio-pesticides as viable, eco-
Rules 1971. In 2011, India submitted its National friendly, and bio-degradable alternatives to POPs pesticides
Implementation Plan (NIP) on POPs, which gives ƒƒ Identification of sites contaminated by POPs and of the remedia-
information on the inventories of twelve legacy POPs. tion process at potential hotspots
Box 3 presents the priorities and the strategies as drawn ƒƒ POPs and pesticides management in India
up in the plan. ƒƒ Inventorization of newly listed POPs
ƒƒ National POPs monitoring programme
However, the NIP is yet to be updated to include ƒƒ Strengthening of institutions and capacity building for effective
the POPs newly added to the SC. Among the fourteen and efficient implementation of the NIP in India
new POPs (Fernández-Cruz et al. 2017) more recently
included in the SC, bromodiphenyl ethers (BDEs) and Research on persistent organic pollutants
perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are used extensively in India
as industrial chemicals in India. Because PFOS is
commercially used and produced in India, the chemical A project titled Climate-induced mobilization of POPs in the
is among the most dominant perfluorinated compounds Ganges river—funded and supported by The Research
(PFCs), followed by perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), in Council of Norway (RCN) and carried out by The Energy
surface sources of water in India (Yeung et al. 2009). and Resources Institute (TERI), the Norwegian Institute
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers are also on the list of of Water Research (NIVA), and the Regional Centre for
widely used industrial chemicals in electronics and in Toxicology (RECETOX), the Czech Republic—turned
upholstery, transport, furniture, and textile industries; as up some noteworthy facts about the status of POPs in
a result, samples of human milk from urban areas were India. The methodology of this research study is shown
found to be high in PBDEs (Devanathan et al. 2012). in Figure 2 and the study area, in Figure 3. During the
dry season, water from the melting of glaciers can be an
The exposure of India’s population to POPs and their influential secondary source of PCBs and high-molecular-
presence in the environment can be taken as symptoms weight polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the higher
of ineffective management and delayed action. Although ranges of the Ganges, whereas in the middle ranges, sink
at present India lacks the capacity to monitor and assess processes – the settling of contaminated particles in the
the emissions and stocks of most of the new POPs, the upper part of the floodplain course of the Ganges in
lessons learnt and data from international cooperation particular – contribute to low exposure levels, especially

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