12 chemicals have been listed primarily as POPs according to the next table:

Chemicals	Pesticides	Industrial Chemicals	By-Products
Aldrin	+
Chlordane	+
Dieldrin	+
Endrin	+
Heptachlor	+
Mirex	+
Toxaphene	+
Hexachlorobenzene	+	+	+
PCBs		+	+
DDT	+
Chlorinated dioxins			+
Chlorinated furans			+

The chemicals which have been listed are subdivided into three Annexes:

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONVENTION

Protection of public health and environment.

GENERAL OBLIGATIONS

• Addition of new chemicals.
• Implementation steps.

THE MAIN TARGETS

Control actions for:

Intentionally Produced POPs:

CONVENTION STATUS UNTIL 5/7/2004

• The convention was adopted and opened for signature by the date of (22/5/2001).
• 151 countries + EU signed the Convention.
• 70 countries ratified the convention.
• Convention web site is http://www.pops.int

DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE PRESENT STATE OF POPS

General information on POPs

1. Pesticides

	Description
DDT	Insecticide used on agricultural crops, especially cotton, and insects that carry diseases like malaria and typhus. DDT is still widely used in developing countries mainly for mosquito control and also for the production of Dicofol.
Aldrin and dieldrin	Insecticides used for crops like corn and cotton. Also used for termite control.
Chlordane	Broad spectrum contact insecticide used on agricultural crops including vegetables, small grains, maize, other oilseeds, potatoes, sugarcane, sugar beets, fruits, nuts, citrus, cotton, and jute. Used on home lawns and gardens. Also used for termite control.
Endrin	Insecticide used mainly on field crops such as cotton and grains. Used as a rodenticide to control mice and voles. Also used to combat birds.
Heptachlor	Stomach and contact insecticide, used primarily against soil insects and termites. Also used against cotton insects, grasshoppers, some crop pests, and to combat malaria.
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB)	Fungicide used for seed treatment of wheat, onions, and sorghum. Also found as impurity in several pesticide formulations. Also found as an industrial by-product.
Mirex	Stomach insecticide used to combat fire ants and leaf cutters, harvester termites, mealy bug, and yellow jacket wasps. Also used by a fire retardant in plastics, rubber, and electrical goods.
Toxaphene	A mixture of more than 670 chemicals and an insecticide, primarily used to control insect pests on cotton and other crops. Used to control insect pests on livestock and to kill unwanted fish in lakes.

2. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Major emission sources of PCBs are: certain high temperature industrial processes such as pyrogeneous emission from the burning, firing, combustion of fossil fuels, waste incineration, road transport, and crude steel production. PCBs are used in synchronous condensers and capacitors as a good dielectric fluid, in transformers as unburnable heat exchanger, for lubrication and hydraulic oils, in impregnators, as an insulator liquid and as refrigeration liquid.

3. By-products: PCDD/PCDFs (polychlorinated dibenzo-P-dioxins and dibenzofurans) and Hexachlorobenzene (HCB)

PCDD/Fs have never been produced intentionally. They are formed as by-products of numerous industrial activities and combustion processes. Almost all of the 210 individual congeners have been identified in emissions from thermal and industrial processes and consequently PCDD/Fs are found as mixtures of individual congeners in environmental matrices such as soil, sediment, air and plants and lower animals. PCDD/Fs, particularly the higher chlorinated, are poorly soluble in water, have low volatility, and adsorb strongly to particles and surfaces. Thus, PCDD/Fs can hardly be identified in water and are immobile in soils, especially the 2,3,7,8-chlorine substituted PCDD/Fs, which are extremely stable in the environment and bio-accumulate in fatty tissues of animals and humans.

Major possible sources of dioxins and furans are waste incineration, thermal metallurgical processes, power plant combustion of fossil fuels, residential combustion and firing of wood and coal at households, specific chemical processes releasing intermediates, PCB-based transformers and electric arc furnace.

Primary sources of environmental contamination with PCDD/Fs in the past were due to the production and use of chloro-organic chemicals including the pulp and paper industry. PCDFs were/are formed as inadvertent by-products in the production and use of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and, in combination with PCDDs, in the production of chlorophenols and have been detected as contaminants in these products. PCDFs can also be found in residual waste from the production of vinyl chloride and the chloralkali process for chlorine production. Factors favourable for the formation of PCDD/Fs are high temperatures, alkaline media, the presence of UV-light, and the presence of radicals in the reaction mixture/chemical process.

Major sources of Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) are almost the same as dioxins and furans: waste incineration, thermal metallurgical industries, use of chlorinated fuels in furnace installations, combustion of fossil fuels, firing of chlorinated compounds, use of solvents and wood preservers and electric arc furnace.

POPs in Egypt

Production, distribution, use, export, import procedures of POPs

Despite the fact that there is no integrated, full information on POPs in Egypt, the National Chemical Profile provides some information on pesticides' import and export. Agricultural Law No. 53 issued in 1966 as well as Ministerial Decree No. 215 issued in 1985 regulates pesticides used in Egypt. An Interagency Pesticides Committee, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture, responsible for pesticide registration and licensing of imports has been established. Before registration, a pesticide is evaluated for three successive years for its efficacy and examined at the time of registration for chemical and physical properties. The Central Agriculture Pesticide Laboratory (CAPL) is now responsible for the registration and regulation of pesticides through its enforcement and penalty systems.

Detailed information on the releases to the environment

There is no assessed information on releases to the environment. Incineration is being controlled to avoid production of dioxins and furans.

Detailed information on regulatory control

Testing laboratories

There are some chemical testing laboratories in Egypt. The laboratory of the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University is the main reference laboratory for the EEAA. In addition to the above are the following laboratories: