Persistent Organic Pollutants in Indonesia "WORKSHOP ON THE EFFLUENT TRAITMENT AND SAFE WASTE DISPOSAL OF TOXIC AND OBSOLETE PESTICIDES"

Abstract

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that, to a varying degree, resist photolytic, biological and chemica! degradation. POPs are often halogenated and characterized by low water solubility and high lipid solubility, leading to their bioaccumulation in fatty tissues. They are also semi-volatile, enabling them to move long distances in the atrnosphere before deposition occurs. Hence, they constitute a serious environmental hazard that comes to expression as important long-term risk to individual species, to ecosystems and to human tlealth. POPs chemicals may cause cancer and disorders in the reproductive and immune systems as well as in the developmental process.