Countries agree to fight marine pollution

Representatives of 102 governments, including the U.S., have committed their countries to protecting the world's marine environment from threats such as sewage, pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants, fertilizers and other nutrients, and habitat destruction. Called the Global Program of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities, the pact was unanimously adopted at a two-week meeting in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The action program will first focus on 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) referred to as the "dirty dozen." They are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin, furans, aldrin, dieldrin, DDT, endrin, chlordane, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, toxaphene, and heptachlor. The goal is "to develop a legally binding instrument for the reduction and/or elimination of emissions, discharges, and, where appropriate, [for] elimination of the manufacture and use" of the 12 pollutants. The instrument would be expan...