EHJ September 2004, pages 290-291
Tina Garrity reports on how the EU plans to limit health risks linked to exposure to persistent organic compounds

Persistent organic pollutants or POPs have long been a scourge on the environmental landscape. These chemical substances bioaccumulate through the food chain, posing a serious threat to human health and the environment. Calls to reduce their release have intensified after they have been found long distances away from their source.

In the European Union, new legislation has finally been adopted that prohibits the use and production of some POPs and controls the rest. The new regulation gives force to the EU's obligations under the Stockholm Convention on POPs and the protocol on POPs, which is attached to the 1979 UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Pollution.

While the EU has adopted a number of provisions on POPs in the past, there has not, until now, been any framework for controlling new substances. What's more, there has been no serious attempt to set emission reduction targets or release inventories for sources of POPs. The regulation will rectify this before legislation on the new registration, evaluation, authorisation of chemicals (REACH) is agreed.

PROHIBTIONS AND RESTRICTIONS

Under the new rules, certain substances, listed in Annex I to the regulation, are prohibited in all but a few circumstances. Among these are aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, PCBs, DDT and hexa-chlorocyclohexane (HCH), including lindane. Lindane is restricted but not prohibited under the protocol, although a deadline for its phasing out has been set for 2007. Annex II to the regulation is designed to list those substances controlled under the convention and the protocol, which the commission feels should be subject to EU legal restrictions. These will be determined at a later date.

The regulation obliges the commission and member states to take account of the convention when assessing and authorising chemicals and pesticides. It also requires that they should take appropriate control measures, including measures to prevent the production, marketing and use of new chemicals and pesticides, which exhibit characteristics of POPs.

STOCKPILES AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

Stockpile holders that have greater than 50kg of Annex I and II substances, which are permitted for use, must notify the relevant competent authority of the nature and size of those stockpiles. They must also manage them in a safe, efficient and environmentally sound manner. The use and management of notified stockpiles will be monitored by the member states. Stockpiles of Annex I and II substances, which are not permitted for use, must be managed as waste.

Waste producers and holders of substances listed in Annex IV (which are similar to those in Annex I) must make all reasonable efforts to prevent contamination of their waste. Any waste that does contain, or is contaminated by, an Annex IV substance, must be disposed of or recovered in such a way that the POP content is destroyed or irreversibly transformed. Disposal or recovery operations that may result in the substance re-appearing are prohibited.

RELEASE INVENTORIES AND ACTION PLANS

Annex III to the regulation contains a list of substances for which member states must draw up and maintain release inventories in accordance with the Convention and protocol. The substances listed at present are PCCD/PCDFs, HCB, PCBs and PAHs.

Member states must ensure that the action plans on measures to identify, characterise and minimise total releases, which they develop under the convention are communicated to the commission and the other member states as part of their required national implementation plans for the regulation. These action plans must include measures to promote the development and, where appropriate, require the use of, substitute or modified materials, products or processes. When considering proposals for new or modified facilities releasing Annex III chemicals, member states must give priority consideration to alternative processes, techniques or practices which have similar usefulness and which avoid the formation and release of such substances.

DATA PROVISION AND PUBLIC INFORMATION

The regulation provides for the development of comparable monitoring data on dioxins, furans and PCBs and for an information exchange process within the community and with third countries. Together, the commission and the member states will promote and facilitate awareness programmes for policy and decision makers and for particularly vulnerable groups on the health and environmental effects, the alternatives and the reduction or elimination of the production, use and release of POPs. They will also provide public information and training, in particular for key groups such as workers, educators and technical and managerial personnel. Lastly, the regulation reiterates the obligations of signatories to the convention to provide technical and financial assistance to developing countries and economies in transition. Rules on the penalties applicable under the regulation will be drafted at a later stage.

Regulation (EC) No 850/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on persistent organic pollutants and amending Directive 79/117/EEC. OJ. L 229. 29.06.04

http://europa.eu.int/eurlex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_229/l_22920040629en00050022.pdf

UK in hot water

The UK's failure to adequately implement the EU environmental impact assessment directive (85/337) in respect of Crown property has landed it in front of the European Court of Justice. Although the UK has adopted the necessary legislation to implement the directive, the Commission believes that the manner in which the UK authorities have interpreted and applied the relevant provisions means that the directive has been incorrectly and incompletely implemented into national law. The problem relates to the fact that because building projects on Crown land are generally excluded from British planning legislation, they are not subject to EIA.

The Commission argues that this means British citizens and the environment are deprived of the protection afforded by EU law. In response, the UK authorities have explained that there are administrative procedures in place to ensure assessment and public consultation but that further legislative measures are needed. However, this is unlikely to occur much before the end of 2005, which the Commission does not believe is good enough.

URBAN WASTEWATER DIRECTIVE

The Commission is also concerned that the UK government is failing to protect sensitive rivers and coastal waters in Northern Ireland from urban wastewater discharges. The Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive requires that urban centres meet minimum standards for wastewater collection and treatment within certain deadlines.

By the end of 1993, member states should have identified areas that are sensitive to eutrophication. Member states were also supposed to have made sure that wastewater discharged into these areas met certain quality objectives by the end of 1998.

Last July, the Commission warned the UK that a number of eutrophic water bodies in Northern Ireland had not been designated as sensitive areas. Furthermore, the sensitive areas already designated were not being protected as the northern Irish authorities had failed to set up adequate systems for the collection and treatment of wastewater discharged into these areas. While some progress is foreseeable, two sensitive water bodies remain non-designated and adequate wastewater collection and treatment systems are still not in place for already designated sensitive areas in the province. The Commission will now issue a final warning.

The UK is not alone in taking its time over the directive. Other member states are also in trouble. On 8 July 2004, the Commission announced that it had sent first written warnings to France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the UK following a Commission investigation which found that many cities and towns fail to properly treat their waste water. The directive set a deadline of 31 December 2000 for so-called secondary treatment to be in place before water is discharged from towns and cities of more than 15,000 inhabitants. The Commission investigation found that in some cases this was not happening.

OTHER WARNINGS

In addition to the above, the UK is to receive first written warnings for a:

• failure to draw up, by 31 December 2003, plans to reduce air pollution in areas where the limit values for a number of air pollutants have been exceeded.
• failure to submit, by 31 March 2004, reports on uses of the pesticide methyl bromide on traded crops. Methyl bromide must be phased out under the EU ozone regulation.

The UK will receive final written warnings for a failure to adopt transposition measures for Gibraltar in relation to the water framework directive and the greenhouse gas emissions trading directive.

United Kingdom: Commission pursues legal action in eight cases of breaches of EU environmental law commission press release IP/04/933. http://europa.eu.int/rapid/