Russia sees PCB phase-out by 2025

December 7, 2000
Web posted at: 11:06 AM EST (1606 GMT)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Russia said on Thursday it hoped to phase out its use of dangerous PCBs in electrical transformers by 2025 but could do so more quickly with financial and technical help from international donors.

"Among dangerous pollutants, the use of PCBs is our big problem. We have something like 35,000 tons in our transformers," Valentine Sokolovskyi, the head of the Russian delegation at U.N. talks to curb and ban dangerous chemicals, told Reuters.

"We hope to stop using PCBs by 2025 and then to destroy contaminated equipment and stockpiles by 2028," he said, speaking through an interpreter on the sidelines of the conference.

"But with financial and technical assistance we could do the job faster," he added.

PCBs are widely used as an insulating compounds in transformers around the world, but are being gradually phased out in many western countries. The have been linked to development delays and behavioral problems in children.

"We need to find alternatives to PCBs and don't know if we will produce them ourselves or import them," Sokolovskyi said.

He also said Russia wanted to retain the use of DDT to fight malaria and tick-borne diseases.

Delegates at the talks said there was a growing consensus to place DDT and other PCBs on annex B of the treaty which will allow them to be phased out gradually over time and used for very restrictive purposes.

Most if not all of the other 12 persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, which have been singled out for urgent attention are expected to be included under annex A and slated for elimination.

Sokolovskyi said Russia needed to get a firm grip on its existing transformers which use PCBs to prevent leakage from causing health problems and despoiling the environment.

He said PCBs have been linked to a range of public health problems in Russia including learning problems among children. Russia's Arctic regions were very badly affected, he added.

POPs tend to accumulate in fatty tissue, making cold-region mammals especially susceptible to their effects.

The World Wide Fund for Nature has highlighted Russia as a toxic hotspot and says PCBs contaminate many of the country's ecosystems and much of its wildlife, including Arctic reindeer.

The talks in Johannesburg started on Monday and are expected to wrap up on Saturday. A binding global treaty is expected to be signed in Stockholm next May.

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