The Chinese government has drafted a plan to phase out the world's most toxic chemicals as required by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an official with the country's top environmental watchdog said Monday.

"The plan sets the target for the country to control, reduce and eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs)," said Yue Ruisheng, deputy director of the International Department of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

He said the plan would be submitted to the State Council, or cabinet, for approval. Under the Stockholm Convention, China will have to submit its national implementation plan to the convention's secretariat by December 11.

China signed the Stockholm convention in May 2001 and it came into effect in November 2004.

"We have an overall picture on the production, circulation and import and export of POPs such as pesticides," he said. "We have also listed major enterprises that emit dioxins."

The SEPA had drawn up a list of the storage sites and dumping grounds of polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs) as well as places polluted by PCBs, he said.

The convention requires all parties to take necessary steps to ban the production and use of some of the most toxic chemicals.

The 12 initial POPs are aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor mirex, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dioxins and furan.

Chinese industries still produce and use chlordane, mirex and DDT. Many transformers and capacitors containing PCBs are awaiting safe disposal.

Meanwhile, the amount of dioxins generated in such processes as paper-making, metal production and waste incineration is also significant as the country's economy grows rapidly.

Waste POPs and places polluted by such chemicals are widespread in the country.

"Despite the challenges ahead, China will firmly implement the Stockholm convention to phase out POPs," he said.

The SEPA would step up supervision of enterprises discharging POPs and eliminate outdated industrial products while developing substitute technologies and products to ensure the economy grew in an environment-friendly way, he said.

Of all the pollutants released into the environment every year by human activity, POPs are among the most dangerous, linked with cancer, allergies and hypersensitivity, damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, reproductive disorders, and disruption of the immune system.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, every person in the world carries traces of POPs in his or her body. POPs are highly stable compounds that can last for years or decades before breaking down.

(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2006)