International Chemicals and Air Pollution Issues

The use and release of certain chemicals can be of serious concern if they have significant impacts on human health or the environment. Some chemicals and pollutants can cross national boundaries and move long distances through air and water. Because of this, negotiation and implementation of international agreements and collaborative activities are essential to ensuring environmental protection in the United States.

The United States participates in a number of agreements and activities to protect human health and the environment, including addressing stratospheric ozone layer depletion through the Montreal Protocol, controlling international movement of hazardous wastes through the Basel Convention, obtaining informed consent from receiving countries prior to export of hazardous chemicals through the Rotterdam Convention, reducing emissions of persistent organic pollutants via the Stockholm Convention, and addressing overarching chemicals issues through the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) framework. We are also working actively through partnerships to seek a global phase out of leaded gasoline, and reduce global releases of mercury to the environment.

We are addressing concerns over issues such as acid rain and emissions of particulate matter through agreements such as the US-Canada Air Quality Agreement and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. A list of major activities the State Department is involved in follows, with a brief explanation of each and a link to a page which explains the activities in greater detail.

Ozone-Depleting Substances

In 1985 the Vienna Convention established mechanisms for international co-operation in research into the ozone layer and the effects of ozone depleting substances (ODSs). 1985 also marked the first discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole.

•   On the basis of the Vienna Convention, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was finalized in 1987. The Protocol called for the Parties to phase out the use of man-made ozone depleting substances. This is a global agreement with 191 parties.

 International Chemicals Management

The following multilateral environmental agreements are concerned with many aspects of potentially hazardous chemicals to facilitate their safe handling, shipping across national borders, and their ultimate disposal.

• The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal controls the international trade in hazardous wastes.
• Globally Harmonized System for the Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) provides an internationally comprehensive system for chemical hazard communication
• Mercury
• Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management is a voluntary initiative to help countries manage chemicals within their borders
• The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides provides governments with the information they need to assess the risk of importing certain chemicals and pesticides.
• The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is a global instrument aimed at reducing the use and release of twelve POPs, the so-called “dirty dozen”.

Long-Range Atmospheric Transport

Chemicals are released into the environment intentionally, as in pesticide applications, and unintentionally as byproducts of industrialization. They occasionally become an international problem demanding multilateral solutions. The environmental fate of chemicals that become airborne may ignore international boundaries and become problems in locations very distant from their sources. 

•  U.S. Canada Air Quality Agreement is a 15 year old bilateral agreement addressing transboundary air pollution originally focused on the problem of acid rain.
• The Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), signed in Geneva in 1979, was originally intended to address transboundary acid deposition in Europe. In the intervening years, eight Protocols have been added to it to cover a broad range of pollutants. The parties to the convention include countries from both western and eastern Europe, as well as the United States, Canada, and the European Community. Of the eight protocols to the Convention, OES primarily focuses on three:
  
  •  The 1998 Protocol on Heavy Metals,
  • The 1998 Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants entered into force on 23 October 2003 and has so far been ratified by 28 countries. The Protocol aims to reduce use and release of 16 POPs,
  • The 1999 Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone.