UN: Treaty to combat dangerous chemicals is expanded to include 9 more toxic substances

Associated Press
5:39 PM EDT, May 9, 2009

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N.-sponsored treaty to combat highly dangerous chemicals has been expanded to include nine more substances that are used in pesticides, electronics and other products, U.N. officials said Saturday.

The additions include one called PFOS worth billions of dollars in a wide range of uses from making semiconductor chips to fighting fires. Another is lindane, a pesticide widely used in combatting head lice.

The chemicals accumulate in the environment up through the food chain and stay in people's bodies, said Donald Cooper, executive secretary to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs.

The new chemicals targeted for elimination are:

— alpha hexachlorocyclohexane, still produced as an unintended byproduct of lindane

— beta hexachlorocyclohexane, still produced as an unintended byproduct of lindane

— hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether, used in flame retardants

— tetrabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether, used in flame retardants

— chlordecone, an agricultural pesticide

— hexabromobiphenyl, or HBB, a flame retardant

— lindane, used in creams for treatment head lice; also has been used in insecticides.

— pentachlorobenzene, used in PCB products, dyestuff carriers, as a fungicide, a flame retardant

For elimination or restriction:

— PFOS — perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-un-un-toxic-chemicals,0,830682,full.story

March 27, 2009 -- New research shows that babies conceived in the spring and early summer have a higher risk for a wide range of birth defects, including Down syndrome, cleft palate, and spina bifida.

The reported increase in birth defects was modest, but it coincided with a similar spike in groundwater pesticide levels during the spring-early summer planting season.

These findings suggest that pesticide exposure may influence birth outcomes nationwide, researchers say.

In earlier studies, researchers have reported increases in birth defects, pregnancy complications, and miscarriages in babies born to farm workers with high levels of exposure to agricultural pesticides.

http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20090327/do-pesticides-make-birth-defects-crop-up

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00016&segmentID=1