Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

Produced in partnership with Laura Bolado of Andes Legal Consulting Ltd
Practice notes

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

Produced in partnership with Laura Bolado of Andes Legal Consulting Ltd

Practice notes
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Introduction

Persistent organic pollutants (Pops) are potentially dangerous chemical substances which may cross international boundaries, are found often far from their emission sources, persist in the environment, bioaccumulate ie become concentrated inside the bodies of living things, and consequently pose a threat to human health and the environment. They are poisonous chemical substances that break down slowly and get into food chains. These priority pollutants consist of pesticides, industrial chemical and unintentional by-products of industrial processes.

POPs are usually transported across international boundaries by air and water far from their sources, even to regions where they have never been used or produced, affecting ecosystems.

For more information on POP emissions, see the data, trackers and indicators on the European Environment Agency website.

Efforts to control and ban POPs

International

At international level there are two major Conventions (international treaties) that are the basis of more focused control measures. Those are:

  1. •

    Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on POPs (the Protocol)

  2. •

    Stockholm Convention on POPs (the Stockholm Convention)

They

Laura Bolado
Laura Bolado

EU Law Specialist, Andes Legal Consulting Ltd


Laura has worked in EU law for nearly two decades that is, to date, her main area of expertise. In 2002 she worked for the European Commission (Brussels) and relocated to London in 2003 to work for the European Medicines Agency. There she gained first-hand experience on the functioning of the EU which she later applied in legal roles at pharmaceutical companies and law firms before turning to a more generalist approach to EU law at UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥. At UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ she helped develop and maintain EU Tracker (writing on the implementation of EU Directives in different EU jurisdictions, etc.) and assisted various departments with EU law matters in her EU Law Specialist capacity. Laura also delivered EU law training to several interns and legal professionals. Laura left UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ in late 2013 to explore her options in different environments. In 2014 Laura lectured EU law at universities in Argentina, spoke at international conferences and continued with her contributions to national legal publications (Rubinzal and Abeledo Perrot/Thomson Reuters) in EU and Integration law. Laura became an author for PSL Public Law in October 2014. Since returning to London in 2015 she runs her own business which includes regular contributions to PSL Environment, Energy and Public Law. From 2017 until 2020 Laura authored the Europe chapter of UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ Civil Court Practice (Green Book). Since 2019 Laura also contributes to Reg-Track writing on financial services, data protection, money laundering, environmental and social governance, etc. in several jurisdictions worldwide.

Education

Laura is a dual-qualified lawyer (Argentina and Spain) with two LLMs in European Law and in Information Technology Law awarded by the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spain.

Laura is a data protection professional certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP CIPP/E) also holds an International Compliance Association certificate in Anti-Money Laundering. 

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Jurisdiction(s):
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Key definition:
Pops definition
What does Pops mean?

The population within a mobile communications provider's licensed area. Confusingly, within the Internet world, the same abbreviation is used to describe Points of Presence (normally abbreviated as PoPs).

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