Global Chemicals Monitoring Programme (GCMP) and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

About Global Chemicals Monitoring Programme (GCMP) 

• The Global Chemicals Monitoring Programme (GCMP) is a worldwide initiative led by theUnited Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• Funded by: It is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
• Purpose: It connects governments, regional centres, scientific institutions, and laboratories across five global regions to gather and share reliable, standardized data on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury.
• Implementing nations: It is implemented through a Global Coordination Project and five Regional Projects covering more than 50 countriesacross Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
• Features: 
  • The shared scientific data under programme enables participating countries to monitor their progress and fulfill their obligations under the Stockholm and Minamata Conventions.
  • Scope Expansion: It integrates mercury monitoring alongside POPs for the first time.
  • Key Strategic Priorities: It focuses on improving laboratory analytical capabilities, standardizing monitoring techniques, strengthening cross-border collaboration, enhancing communication, and integrating gender and human rights considerations into all operations.
• Methods and Output: It delivers high-quality data on environmental and human POP levels as well as airborne mercury through human and environmental biomonitoring, technical training, interlaboratory testing, and scientific partnerships. 
• Long-Term Goal: These combined efforts aim to establish self-sustaining national and regional monitoring systems that can produce reliable data long after the programme ends.
• Impact: By reinforcing long-term monitoring networks, the GCMP provides the crucial evidence needed to drive effective chemical management, cleaner environments, and healthier communities.

About Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

• Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are organic carbon-containing semi-volatile pollutants that are persistent, toxic and bioavailable.
• It can resist environmental degradation, accumulate in the food chain, and travel long distances across international borders, endangering human health and ecosystems. 
• It possess a particular combination of physical and chemical properties.
• Properties:
  • It  remain intact for exceptionally long periods of time (many years);
  • It become widely distributed throughout the environment as a result of natural processes involving soil, water and, most notably, air;
  • It accumulate in the living organisms including humans, and are found at higher concentrations at higher levels in the food chain; and
  • It is toxic to both humans and wildlife.
• The most commonly encountered POPs are organochlorine pesticides, such as DDT, industrial chemicals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) as well as unintentional by-products of many industrial processes, especially polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and dibenzofurans (PCDF), commonly known as dioxins.
• Effect of POP: Its effect include cancer, allergies and hypersensitivity, damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, reproductive disorders, and disruption of the immune system.