New pact to let European public track pollutants

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - European citizens will be able to find out what dangerous substances are emitted in their neighbourhoods under an environmental treaty to go into effect in 17 countries in October, the United Nations said on Friday.

Participating states will have to issue public inventories of major pollutants that their industries, traffic, agriculture and enterprises spew into the air, soil and water, including greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Some 86 categories of substances -- ranging from mercury and other heavy metals, benzine, asbestos, pesticides including DDT, and dioxins -- are covered under the pact.

"These inventories are made available to the public over the Internet and generally also through a downloadable map that helps people identify major pollutants that are travelling through their neighbourhoods to discover what is in their backyard ...," Michael Stanley-Jones, an environmental expert at the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), told reporters.

"It doesn't cover all chemicals, but it does cover the major releases of chemicals," he said.

The pact, signed in 2003 by 36 countries, enters into force on Oct. 8 after being ratified recently by a 17th country (France), according to the Geneva-based agency. It is open to all U.N. member states for ratification.

"It is truly a global instrument, part of a global movement initiated in the 1980s after the major accidents in Bhopal and Chernobyl," said Stanley-Jones.

A catastrophic industrial accident in central India killed nearly 8,000 people in 1984 when tonnes of toxic gas leaked from a pesticide plant of Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co, the largest U.S. chemical maker.