No abstract

The unsustainable life cycle management of pesticides in the last 60 years has created large pesticide stockpiles. The two major working areas of the International HCH and Pesticide Association (IHPA; www.ihpa.info ) address a part of these legacies and are shortly introduced here: (1) The assessment and support of the management of the worlds single largest POPs stockpile: the globally dumped 4 to 7 million tonnes hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) wastes from lindane production, and (2) the support for the management of the obsolete pesticides legacy in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries of ~240,000 t, leaving these pesticides in unregulated storages without adequate safety control being a huge risk to the environment and human health. The integrative approach IHPA takes-promoting international cooperation and the exchange of knowledge and experiences-is shortly explained. IHPA has developed various supporting tools for its work: the IHPA web page and newsletter informing on the threats and challenges, but also on the progresses of managing pesticide stockpiles; the joint GIZ-PAN-IHPA exhibition on awareness of the pesticide stockpile challenge; and the 'International HCH and Pesticides Forum' as most important tool to progress the integrative work and mission of IHPA. Finally, a summary of the 11th International HCH and Pesticides Forum held in Gabala, Azerbaijan is given which brought together more than 120 scientists, policy-makers, non-governmental and international organisations, industry and students from more than 40 countries to progress the obsolete pesticides and hazardous chemical waste challenge in EECCA countries. The event finished with adoption of 'Gabala Declaration', which aims to mobilise efforts of all stakeholders for prevention and elimination of POPs, obsolete pesticides, and hazardous chemical waste in the region.

Azerbaijan has a history of production and heavy use of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) with use focused in the main agricultural lowland region centred on the Kur River. Using a number of data sources, including archived reports from several government ministries, we attempt to construct production and use inventories for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and HCHs and compare these to scientific estimates of production and use of these chemicals in the 1960s to the 1980s. Notable discrepancies are evident particularly for DDT, with Azeri government records indicating much higher use (147-fold) than that estimated by the international scientific community. Soil and river sediment data from the 1980s and 2000s are also presented. While it is recognised that analytical uncertainties remain high for these older data (generated by GC-ECD), there is some evidence to show a decline in concentrations for some OCPs over this period. Extremely high concentrations of OCPs are evident for soils sampled in the vicinity of obsolete pesticide storage sites (found in numerous locations around the agricultural lowlands) and these levels may pose a health risk to wildlife and humans. River sediment data indicate high levels of both OCPs and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), particularly downstream of the confluence of the two main rivers, the Kur and Araz. Particle-bound annual fluxes from the Kur River into the Caspian Sea are estimated for PCBs and OCPs and these are likely to influence levels observed in local coastal sediments, with agreement between river sediment data generated in the early 2000s and coastal marine sediment data generated from separate studies. We recommend that monitoring efforts should focus on soils in agricultural areas and around pesticide storage and production facilities as these soils will continue to provide a source of POPs to the regional environment.

No abstract

PBDEs were measured in air and soil across Azerbaijan to establish contemporary concentrations at 13 urban and rural sites. Polyurethane foam passive air samplers (PUF-PAS) were deployed for a period of a month with surface soil samples collected at the same sites. Unlike organochlorine pesticides previously surveyed by our group, PBDE concentrations in both contemporary air and soil were low in comparison to recent European and Asian studies. For example, mean ∑PBDE concentrations in air and soil were 7.13 ± 1.66 pg m and 168 ± 57 pg g, respectively. The fully brominated BDE-209 was the most abundant congener observed in soil (174.8 ± 58.5 pg g), comprising ~ 96% of ∑PBDE. However, the PAS-derived air concentrations for highly brominated congeners must be viewed with caution as there is uncertainty over the uptake rates of particle-bound chemicals using these devices. Some of the highest concentrations in air were observed at sites with the highest wind speeds and at several remote locations in the north of the country and this requires further research. Levels of BDE-47 and 99 (the two most abundant congeners in the widely used penta-formulation) were lower than levels reported elsewhere suggesting limited use/import of the penta-BDE formulation in Azerbaijan.