Reducing and eliminating the use of persistent organic pesticides - A guide by WHO

This document by the World Health Organisation is a guide for the onset of national efforts to assess, select and develop alternative strategies to Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) pesticides in line with the basic principles for more sustainable practices in pest and vector control. It takes into account various aspects of public health, the environment and agriculture with the objective of fostering holistic and integrated approaches while ensuring that strategies of different sectors are compatible, coordinated and mutually reinforcing.

Implementation of such strategies will also be promoted through regional training workshops, pilot studies and support to develop and implement national action plans. Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulate in high concentrations in fatty tissues and are bio-magnified through the food-chain. Hence they constitute a serious environmental hazard that comes to expression as important long-term risks to individual species, to ecosystems and to human health. POPs chemicals may cause cancer and disorders in the reproductive and immune systems as well as in the developmental process. They constitute a particular risk to infants and children who may be exposed to high levels through breast-milk and food.

The guide is divided into the following sections:

• Table of contents and preface
• Introduction
• Reducing/eliminating the use of POPs pesticides and selecting alternative
• management strategies
• Approaches of choice - Intergrated pest management and integrated vector
• management
• Specific aspects of pest and vector management
• Case studies
• Annexes
• Flow chart

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