Fwd: PANUPS: Action Alert: Tell the U.S. Congress to Block Bill Undermining POPs

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PANUPS

 

PANUPS: Action Alert: Tell the U.S. Congress to Block Bill Undermining

POPs

Wed, 24 Mar 2004 13:20:21 -0800

 

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P A N U P S

Pesticide Action Network Updates Service

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Action Alert

Tell the U.S. Congress to Block Bill Undermining POPs Treaty

March 24, 2004

 

The Bush administration and its allies in the chemical and pesticide industries

are pushing legislation forward that will seriously undermine implementation of

the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs Treaty). If you

live in the U.S., please help us stop this legislation by taking the two easy

steps outlined below.

 

1 - CALL your U.S. Senators (Switchboard: 202-224-3121) and U.S. Representative

(Switchboard: 202-225-3121) and ask them to **block the current draft bill**

moving through Congress that would cripple U.S. implementation of the Stockholm

Convention; and 2)**support better legislation** that would allow full U.S.

implementation of the Convention. See the sample letter below for points you can

make on your call.

 

2 - EMAIL your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative by cutting and pasting the

sample letter below and sending it to them directly. Use the links provided to

find their email addresses.

 

BACKGROUND:

 

More than 50 countries have now ratified the historic Stockholm Convention, an

international treaty designed to eliminate a class of dangerous chemicals that

are toxic, travel long distances, persist in the environment, and build up the

food chain. The treaty will ban 12 POPs, including nine pesticides once used

widely in the U.S., and includes provisions for taking future action on

additional POPs, including several pesticides still in widespread use in the

U.S.

 

The POPs treaty comes into force on May 17, 2004 and requires that a first

meeting of ratifying countries be held within a year. To fully participate in

decision-making under the treaty, the U.S. must ratify the Convention 90 days

before the first meeting takes place.

 

The Bush administration wants to be at the table as implementation of this

sweeping treaty moves forward, and is eager to ratify the Convention before the

deadline. Congress must pass implementing legislation bringing U.S. laws into

accord with the treaty before the Senate can move forward with ratifying the

Convention. Unfortunately, the draft implementing legislation now being pushed

through Congress by the administration and industry backers is dangerously

flawed.

 

More specifically, the version of this bill that emerged from the House

Agriculture Committee would amend existing law (i.e. the Federal Insecticide,

Fungicide and Rodenticide Act or FIFRA) in a way that could make it more rather

than less difficult for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to

take action on new POPs pesticides identified under the treaty. It also allows

U.S. EPA to ignore treaty decisions when considering domestic action on new POPs

pesticides, and does not require U.S. EPA to take any action at all when a new

POPs chemical is listed under the treaty. For a more detailed explanation of why

we believe this bill is fatally flawed, see the NGO statement (see link below)

presented to U.S. EPA and key congressional staff on March 8, 2004.

 

PAN together with environmental and public health groups around the country are

calling on Congress to block this bill and support legislation supporting full

implementation of the Stockholm Convention, AND two important related treaties,

the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC) and the Long-Range

Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP).

 

For more information on PAN's work to eliminate POPs pesticides, visit

http://www.panna.org/campaigns/pops.html. See also

http://www.ciel.org/Publications/POPs_Announce_Congress_Mar04.pdf for more

information on the current debate in Congress. For a current list of countries

that have ratified the Stockholm Convention, see http://www.pic.int, the

Rotterdam Convention, see http://www.pic.int.

 

NGO Statement to U.S. EPA: http://www.ciel.org/POPs/fifra_epa_mar904.html

 

SAMPLE LETTER

 

Copy the text below, then click on these links to find and email your Senators

and Representative, pasting the sample letter and adding your personalized

message.

 

For an email address for your U.S. Senator:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

 

For an email address for you U.S. Representatives U.S. Representative

http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php

 

Date

The Honorable Senator/Representative ________

Washington, DC 20510

 

Dear Senator/Representative _______:

 

Please do not support the version of implementing legislation for the Stockholm

Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) emerging from the House

Agriculture Committee. This billæwhich has been developed by the Bush

administration to amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

(FIFRA)æseverely undermines the spirit of the historic Stockholm Convention by

making it more difficult rather than easier for EPA to take action on pesticides

that are identified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the treaty.

 

POPs are a class of particularly dangerous chemicals that are toxic, move great

distances via wind and water, persist in the environment and bio-accumulate as

they move up the food chain. In enacting the Stockholm Convention, the global

community has recognized that these chemicals pose a worldwide threat to human

health and the environment.

 

The bill now moving through Congress allows the U.S. to ignore decisions to

target new chemicals for global elimination, and does not require EPA to take

any action at all when a new POPs chemical is listed under the treaty - even

though the U.S. will be a full participant in those treaty decisions.

 

As a concerned constituent I urge you to support new implementing legislation

that allows the U.S. to fully implement the Stockholm Convention. Effective

legislation to implement this treaty in the U.S. must truly protect the public

from pesticides that are identified as dangerous POPs chemicals now or in the

future.

 

Thank you for your consideration,

 

YOUR NAME

 

 

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on

pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the mainstream media. It's

produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and

non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to

pesticides worldwide.

 

You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and all

contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit

http://www.panna.org/donate.

 

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Email: panna

Web: http://www.panna.org

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