Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #122037

Luke Trip, Sound Management of Chemicals, Commission for Enironmental Cooperation, 393 rue St-Jacques, Montreal, QC 99999, Canada, 1-514-350-4372, ltrip@cec.org

To counter concerns that the North American Free Trade Agreement (1994) would reduce environmental standards to the lowest common denominator, Mexico, Canada and USA agreed to establish the Commission for Environmental Cooperation under the authority of a parallel accord known as the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. Recognizing that toxic chemical uses, manufacturing and disposal were a large part of the North American economy, the 3 national environment Ministers agree to assess, and mitigate possible trinational impacts resulting from the use and dispersion of many of these substances that were persistent bioaccumulative and toxic. Originally four substances, Chlordane, PCB, DDT and Mercury were selected with three more suggested by the Substance Selection Task Force. These are Lindane, Dioxins/Furans/Hexachlorobenzene as a group and Lead. This presentation will provide a summary of the trilateral, continental scale, chemical management initiative and the influence such a program has been able to generate, with emphasis on the toxicants that are particularly important in relation to children's health.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the potential environmental health issues associated with the NAFTA and other trade agreements and institutional arrangements such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) for addressing these issues.
• Understand the challenges of managing chemicals in North America (chemicals in commerce, movement of POPs, monitoring) and trilateral approaches that are being taken.
• Learn about indicators of children's health and the environment in North America that are under development.
• Understand the role and purpose of pollutant release and transfer registries, the North American registry and how it can be applied to tracking children's health issues.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation