Convention On The Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents (Helsinki, 1992)

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Since the early 1990s the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has concentrated its efforts on preventing industrial accidents and especially their transboundary effects in its region, which stretches from Canada and the United States of America in the west to the Russian Federation in the east. Its work led to the adoption of the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents on 17 March 1992. It was signed by 26 UNECE member countries and the European Union and entered into force on 19 April 2000.

The Convention aims at protecting human beings and the environment against industrial accidents by preventing such accidents as far as possible, by reducing their frequency and severity and by mitigating their effects. It promotes active international cooperation between the contracting Parties, before, during and after an industrial accident.

Industrial operations may involve substances that do not usually represent a great threat to our health or our environment but are nevertheless potentially hazardous. Even the safest plant is never totally risk-free. In Europe, the well-publicized industrial accidents at Seveso in Italy in 1976 and Basel in Switzerland ten years later have brought this message home to us.

Both accidents wreaked havoc with the environment. In Seveso, the release of dioxin contaminated the surrounding area and poisoned local residents. In Basel, the pollution of the Rhine -- in France and Germany, as well as in Switzerland -- following a fire at a chemical warehouse killed thousands of fish. As a result, risk assessment and accident prevention have received much more attention in the past two decades.

If an industrial accident does occur, the Convention expects the Parties to take effective steps to minimize its effects, including those of a transboundary nature. If several countries are affected by the accident, they should work together to ease its effects. They should also help one another if asked to do so .

This presentation was taken from the UNECE Website

You can find more information, and the convention in other languages, on: http://www.unece.org