East Asia Monitor
UNU
e-Newsletter
Guest Editorial Comment: Prof. Bo Jansson, Institute of Applied Environmental Research, Stockholm University
In the beginning of September the UNU and the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) arranged a two days workshop on "Monitoring of POPs in the East Asian Hydrosphere". The meeting was a part of the Coastal Hydrosphere Project, and gathered participants from the eight centers plus a couple of lecturers from other regions. One of the aims with the meeting was to sum up the now finished monitoring phase, which included analysis of some POPs in water, and during the following three days prepare for a new round on POPs in water and sediments. Another aim was to have a look at the guidelines or standards that exist for POPs in water in the different countries in the region.
The participants in the project had analyzed several of the twelve POPs included in the Stockholm Convention. Interesting results were presented for especially DDT, some of which indicate a continuous use in some areas in spite of the ban to use the substance there. The overall experience from the project will be useful for the development of a global monitoring program for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Stockholm Convention and I hope that it will be possible to establish a close co-operation between regional and global initiatives. There is, however, a difference between the two; the global monitoring will be in background environments, while the East Asian project is more focused on hot spots.
The major part of the program was dedicated to environmental standards for the POPs. Looking at values found for e.g. DDT, the difference between countries in the region was several orders of magnitude. Including also values from other parts of the world extended this range with another two to three orders of magnitude. As the scientific background at any time is common, these differences may reflect that the values have been determined on different occasions, but it may also be due to other reasons.
Dr. Michael Warne presented the development of water quality guidelines in New South Wales, Australia. The quality of available scientific data was initially classified, and only acceptable data were used in the process. Based on these data a species sensitivity distribution method was used to determine the concentration that should theoretically protect any selected percentage of species. The quality of this distribution is of course depending on the amount and quality of the underlying scientific data. This system makes the process transparent, as it is possible to see potential consequences of a chosen limit.
In the concluding discussion the possibility to harmonize the standards/guidelines in the region was penetrated. It was mentioned that the values have to be based on sound science, and that the species sensitivity distributions used in could be one way forward. The data used in Australia would need to be transformed into data applicable in the East Asia due to differences in the environment (e.g. different species). We have, however, to realize that it is not easy to harmonize standards/guidelines between countries, there may be other than scientific reasons for the established values.
The workshop was very interesting and gave me an idea of a way to build and improve capacity for the analyses of POPs. Some of these analyses are very demanding, both regarding instrumentation and human resources. The project seems to have both, and I wish you all success.