Aarhus Protocol

The Aarhus Protocol on persistent organic pollutants, adopted in 1998, follows the 1979 Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.

Principle of the Aarhus Protocol

Applicable since 2003, this international treaty prohibits the production and use of a certain number of particularly pollutant chemical substances in Europe, North America and Central Asia, due to their characteristics:

• easily diffused over very long distances;
• resistant to biological degradation (persistence);
• bioaccumulable;
• toxic.

Pollutants prohibited by the protocol

There are especially 16 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that are targeted by this protocol:

• aldrin;
• chlordane;
• kepone;
• DDT;
• dieldrin;
• PCDDs (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins);
• PCDFs (polychlorinated dibenzofurans);
• endrin;
• PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons);
• lindane (HCH);
• heptachlor;
• hexabromobiphenyl;
• hexachlorobenzene;
• mirex;
• PCBs;
• toxaphene.

The text of the protocol is available in English on the website of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE): http://www.unece.org