Dioxin Facts - Dioxin Sources - Achieving Zero Dioxin - Dioxin Elimination Report - Health & Environmental Effects - What are POPs? - POPs Sources - Eliminating POPs

The main POPs of concern in New Zealand are dioxins (including furans), DDT, dieldrin, lindane and PCBs. All of these, except dioxins, are now banned or de-registered chemicals, however the insidious characteristics of these chemicals - persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic - shows us time and time again that they cannot be properly "managed".

For example, a member of the public recently discovered and revealed to Greenpeace that drums of leaking PCBs had been found at a central Auckland site. Tests have shown very high contamination levels of 25,000 parts per million, when a site is considered "contaminated" at 50 parts per million.

Drums of PCB's leaking into soil at a central Auckland site.

The contaminated soil has since been collected in drums and stored awaiting transport to Europe for incineration. Incineration of organochlorines leads to the formation of dioxins in emissions as well as in the ash created, which must then be disposed of. It is as unacceptable to incinerate organochlorines in another's backyard as it is to do it in New Zealand.

Agricultural sprays are still in use in New Zealand which are contaminated with POPs. The widely used herbicide 24-D is contaminated with dioxins. A New Zealand briefing paper prior to the fourth negotiating meeting of the international treaty stated that "New Zealand currently uses some non-POPs pesticides that contain Hexachlorabenzene (HCB is one of the 'dirty dozen') as an impurity. And that - "It is in New Zealand's interest to have a de minimus level [of exemption to elimination] defined to avoid the risk of agricultural exports with pesticide residues becoming entangled with the POPs convention."

Of course many of New Zealand's agricultural exports are food exports - food which is sprayed with chemicals containing POPs.

The government doesn't even know how many POP contaminated sites exist - although it has been estimated that there are around 7200 contaminated sites. This excludes sites used for cattle dips which used DDT.