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A Toxics-Free Future

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Highlights Front Roll

Plastics, Plastic Waste, and Chemicals in Africa
New Video: Plastics Poisoning Our Health
Promoting Stronger Protections on Chemicals at BRS COP
How the UNEA Plastics Resolutions Relates to Chemicals and Health
Plastic Poisons the Circular Economy
Plastic Waste Fuels: policy spreads toxic trade across Asia

The 2006 decision that established the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) expires in 2020. In this thought starter, IPEN highlights some ways that SAICM has proven to be an extremely important international framework for promoting and advancing chemical safety objectives, and offers some suggestions to address the urgent question: what comes next? 

The 4th meeting of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM4) for the SAICM will be held in Geneva from 28 September to 2 October 2015 and numerous IPEN Participating Organization representatives will be attending. Check our page here to find more ICCM4-related documents from IPEN, as well as information about IPEN's priorities for the conference, events during the conference, and more. 

IPEN worked with partners Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) to send a letter to the European Commission about the European Union's position on the recent proposal to recycle materials containing the toxic flame retardant DecaBDE. This proposal will be addressed at the upcoming meeting of the Stockholm Convention POPs Review Committee (POPRC) in October and the letter urges the Commission to take a clear position against recycling materials containing DecaBDE.

The final Asian Lead Paint Elimination Project Partner Newsletter is now available, and contains news about the Project achievements, such as: one of the strictest lead paint standards in the world in Nepal, 90% of the market meeting the mandatory 600 ppm standard in Sri Lanka, third party paint certification program developed in India, and a world class lead paint regulation in the Philippines, amongst others. 

On August 11, 2015, in Minsk, Belarus, the second sub-regional seminar of IPEN Participating Organisations was completed. The event was coordinated by Eco-Accord, IPEN Hub for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA), and Centre of Environmental Solutions (CES), Belarus, and was attended by NGOs from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, and representatives of IPEN and the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Ukraine. They discussed issues associated with strengthening civil society organisations working on chemical safety. The first seminar of the series was held in June 2015, in Almaty, for Central Asia countries. 

Uncommon Disease: Dita's World

By Larry C. Price

RAU-RAU, Indonesia—Off the main road and down a terraced hillside, there is a small house painted a bright aqua. Behind the tidy house a much smaller bamboo hut sits on a foundation of stacked stones, like a cage on a platform. 

Inside the hut it is dark, except for thin bands of light that filter through gaps in the bamboo walls. 

A small girl lies on a blanket on the floor. Her mother crouches at her side.

Vi Waghiyi (July 7, 2015): Sometimes when you live in a small, remote town you need support beyond your community to take care of your family and well-being. Savoonga is a traditional Yup'ik community on St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea, just 40 miles from the Chukotkan Peninsula of Russia. For much of the year we are surrounded by sea ice. Like our traditional Siberian relatives, we rely on bowhead whale, walrus, seals and other customary foods for most of our diet. But, recently, we relied on the peoples of Ghana, South Korea, El Salvador, Brazil, Switzerland, Norway, and over 80 other nations to support our health. Together, our work improved health globally, through a United Nations vote that banned the chemical pentachlorophenol.

A sub-regional skill share meeting of IPEN Participating Organizations (POs) took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan in June. The workshop was organized by Eco-Accord (IPEN Hub for the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) region) and IPEN PO Greenwomen from Kazakhstan. The goal of the meeting was to strengthen NGO capacity in Central Asia to actively participate in decision-making processes on chemical safety.

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