China, one of the world's largest chemical products producers, is confronted with great challenges in reducing and eliminating the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) that exist in these products, Luo Yi, an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said in Beijing Monday.

Luo made the remarks at an international symposium on the impact of POPs in urban areas cosponsored by the United Nations University and Sino-Japan Friendship Center for Environmental Protection located in Beijing.

On May 17, the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which was signed by China and 150 other countries and regions in 2001, legally came into force. In the convention, 12 POPs, the so-called 'dirty dozen', were listed as the initial controlling target.

POPs are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment.

"Every human in the world carries traces of POPs in their bodies. These chemicals are highly stable compounds that can last for years or decades before breaking down," said Li Guogang, the chief engineer of China National Environmental Monitoring Center.

According to Luo, among the nine pesticides included by the convention's POP list, five were once mass produced in China, and four are still found to be produced and used in some places today. China has detected POPs existing in crops, fruits, tealeaves, animals and human bodies.

In certain parts of China, pollution of POPs is very serious, but China does not have the monitoring capability at present, Luo said.

Fortunately, POPs have already caught the government's attention. SEPA has established a Stockholm Convention Implementation Office in Beijing and since 1999, Canada, Italy and the Global Environment Facility have respectively funded China in controlling POPs.

"The problem of POPs is a global issue, so we must join hands together to get rid of it, or we ourselves will suffer from it sooner or later," said Tsunao Kamijo, a Japanese participating in the symposium.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2004)