POPs remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms and are highly toxic to humans and wildlife. They increase brain, bladder, biliary, lung, breast and other cancers, cause damage to the kidney, liver, adrenals and thyroid, can cause decreased fertility, immune suppression, diabetes, porphyria, cardiovascular disease, fatal skin lesions especially in children and nursing infants (“pink sore”), headache, dizziness, nausea, general malaise, and vomiting, followed by muscle twitching, myoclonic jerks and convulsions.
All of the killer POPs pose shared health threats but each has its own special hazards. Endrin, for example, is 2-4 times more toxic than the better known DDT, and tends to accumulate in children. Chlordane, banned in the US in 1988, paralysis cancer-fighting cells and doubles rates of lung and brain cancer in exposed persons. As a group, the seven deadly pesticides are known to increase the effects of the other toxic substances. Codex allows them in food.
Scientists estimate that the misuse of POPs leads to thousands of excess deaths, millions of disabilities and billions of lost dollars annually.
The seven restricted POPs banned by both the Stockholm Convention and US law but permitted by Codex are Aldrin, Chlordane, , Dieldrin, Endrin, Heptachlor, Hexachlorobenzene and Mirex. Toxiphene and DDT are the only two POPs pesticides on the Stockholm POPs list which Codex does not allow.