THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ISSUE OF PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN UKRAINE AND APPROACHES FOR ITS RESOLUTION

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) relate to a group of toxicants, which is separated due to an extremely hazardous impact on human health and is regulated by a special international agreement — the Stockholm Convention on POPs. Each Party of the Convention should develop and consistently renew the National Implementation Plan to implement requirements under this Convention. Ukraine developed the National Implementation Plan in 2007, and the experts started works on its renewal in 2020. The article contains results of expert analysis of changes in volumes and forms of accumulation of waste, consisting of containing or contaminated with POPs, in particular, unusable and prohibited plant protection chemicals (PPC). There are outcomes of expert analysis of changes in use of electrical equipment that contained synthetic dielectric liquids based on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Based on analysis, activities are proposed to the National Implementation Plan for development of effective infrastructure for thermal destruction of POP-containing waste. In addition to storage sites of POPs-containing waste, so-called “nintentional production” is an essential source of POPs entering environment. For categories of sources that under the Stockholm Convention can potentially polluted environment with POPs volumes of annual emission into the air, water, and soil for six basic pollutants have been calculated. Modern extensive monitoring system for POPs should be established to clear up a real state with environmental pollution by POPs in the country. Results of such monitoring together with strong regulatory support may motivate enterprises to an introduction of “best available techniques”. Bibl. 7, Tab. 3.