Persistent Organic Pollutants

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are the organic compounds of global concern due to their persistent nature, bioaccumulation potential, long-range transfer, and toxicity. POPs in the environment are a major concern and the emission of POPs to the global scale is much important since they tend to migrate to polar regions at higher concentrations. The Stockholm Convention on POPs is an international treaty that aims to eliminate the POPs from the environment by ceasing their production and by putting restrictions on their usage which was adopted in 2001. There are various classical POPs also known as “Dirty Dozen”. Other than these there are also some newly listed and emerging POPs in the environment. The presence of POPs in the environment is a serious problem at the global scale, and solving this problem is a global challenge asPOPs also have a great impact on the environment and human health globally. Various safer alternatives have been proposed globally, banning of few POPs have taken place, global monitoring plans on POPs are in process, and different techniques for POPs remediation from different environmental matrices have also been proposed in scientific domain as a global as well as India’s response.