About PBTs

Background

Fact Sheet

Frequently Asked Questions

General Information

PBT pollutants are chemicals that are toxic, persist in the environment and bioaccumulate in food chains and, thus, pose risks to human health and ecosystems. The biggest concerns about PBTs are that they transfer rather easily among air, water, and land, and span boundaries of programs, geography, and generations.

Annual Accomplishments Reports

2001-2002

The third in the annual series, "Breaking the Cycle - PBT Program Accomplishments Report 2001-2002" outlines the successful actions and ongoing investments by EPA's PBT Program. This report describes successes of the PBT Program that cut across a broad spectrum of activities including pollution reductions; filling PBT data gaps; collaborative efforts with private, governmental and international partners; and developing further strategic approaches for reducing releases and exposures to priority PBTs.

2000

The Second Annual Edition of the EPA's Agency-wide Multimedia Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic Pollutants effort, the 2000 PBT Program Accomplishments Report [PBT] is available online. (1,700 KB)

The 2000 accomplishments report is organized around 4 primary goals:

preventing the introduction of new PBTs into the marketplace
reducing risk to human health and the environment from exposure to priority PBTs already in the environment
halting the transfer of PBTs among air, water and land
assessing PBTs long-term effect on the environment.

1999

The First Annual 1999 Accomplishments Report of the EPA's Agency-wide Multimedia Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic Pollutants Initiative.

Some of the documents provided by EPA are Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) files. For more information about PDFs, visit the About PDF page.