Persistent Organic Pollutants and Health. The session entitled, “Persistent Organic Pollutants [POPs] and Health”, was jointly chaired by Professor Tao Shu, Beijing University, China and Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja, SDPI, Pakistan. Mr. Jack Weinberg, Senior Policy Advisor, International POPs Elimination Network, opened the session with an account of the Stockholm Convention on POPs and the catalytic role played by NGOs during inter-governmental negotiations. Public health and environmental NGOs have come to play critical roles in promoting chemical safety and environmental health, and in helping put chemical safety concerns on the agendas of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Professor Sun Su-Ju of Hebei Medical University , China, discussed findings of his study on POPs in human breast milk in Hebei Province, China and Tokyo, Japan. Data indicated lower levels of dioxin body burden in Hebei Province due possibly to its relatively slow industrialization and lower consumption of marine foods. Professor Sun strongly recommended a comprehensive monitoring of POPs in human milk and food in China. Dr. Agus Sudaryanto of Ehime University , Japan discussed exposure to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in Asia . Data presented indicated the presence of PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ether, a category of BFRs) in all studied human breast milk samples from various urban areas in Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. From the variations of PBDE congener profiles in human breast milk, it was suggested that humans are exposed to multiple sources and pathways. The estimated daily intakes of PBDEs by infants were found to be well below the experimental body burden associated with various developmental effects in neonatal mice and rats, implying minimal risk by these compounds at present. Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja from the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan, presented data from an extensive survey of the soil in and around an abandoned DDT manufacturing factory, in Amman Gharh, Nowshera, NWFP, Pakistan. Despite the closure of the factory for many years, 90.91% of the soil samples (n = 80) studied were contaminated with DDT, with 66.6% of the samples indicating residual DDT levels higher than DDT minimum risk level (MRL) in soil. In view of these findings, Nowshera district local government has already issued a public notice declaring the study site prohibited area for any activity. Efforts were also underway to solicit technical and financial support to rehabilitate the affected site. Professor Yanxu Zhang of Beijing University investigated spatial distribution of probabilistic health risk for a population exposed to polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). People within urban districts had the highest exposure to PAHs, resulting from the high concentrations of PAHs in the atmosphere. The distribution had distinct spatial variance, with the population living in the center of the city having the highest probabilistic health risk. Professor Bo Ling from the Chinese Center for Disease Control presented results of studies carried out at two heavily and lightly polluted sites and a control site to investigate the human health effects of PCB pollution resulting from disassembling used transformers. PCB contamination was observed even in areas 100 km from the PCB source. PCB accumulation was evident in the food chain: surface water, fish and duck eggs were contaminated as were soil, chicken and pigs. PCBs were also detected in the intravenous blood of mothers and their children and the umbilical cord blood and foetal excreta of the newborns living in the area. Prapat Pentamwa of the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand discussed a study in which levels of indoor and outdoor airborne POPs including organochlorine pesticides (OCs) and Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured. The results of the study showed that the concentrations of investigated POPs pesticides and PCBs indoor air were higher than outdoor, especially in urban homes. However, the levels were low and of the same range as measured in other studies. From the reported indoor and outdoor air ratios (I/O ratios), it was also concluded that most of the indoor POPs compounds were typically dominated by indoor sources and made a significant contribution to indoor air concentrations. The last presentation of the session was by Sakhawat Shah from Qaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan who presented research that examined the adsorption and removal of Dieldrin from aqueous systems.