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PA PROTECTION OF ARCTIC A PRIMARY GOAL OF MULTINATIONAL INITIATIVE LAUNCHED TO PHASE-OUT PCBs IN RUSSIA
Release Date: 06/26/98
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1998
PROTECTION OF ARCTIC A PRIMARY GOAL OF MULTINATIONAL INITIATIVE LAUNCHED TO PHASE-OUT PCBs IN RUSSIA
To reduce sources of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that impact all of the arctic countries, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States, will cooperate to expedite the phase out of the use of PCBs by the Russian Federation and to further develop environmentally sound disposal practices. PCBs are carcinogens and are highly mobile substances capable of being transported great distances from their point of origin.
The production of PCBs has been banned in the United States since 1976. The project will be undertaken in phases: information gathering on the production, use and disposal of PCBs in the Russian Federation, a feasibility study on alternatives to PCB use and disposal practices, and demonstration projects to test alternatives. The first phase of the project will be conducted under the auspices of the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, which is based in Oslo, Norway. This project also supports work under the Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which was signed at Aarhus, Denmark on June 24. The protocol will ban the production and phaseout of certain uses of PCBs in signatory countries.
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