Environmental matrices contain a great variety of pollutants including those released from industrial & agricultural activity and urban waste. These pollutants include heavy metals, pesticides, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) etc. POPs can remain for a very long time and enter the food chain, posing a real risk to human and ecological health. The United Nations University (UNU), along with the support of Shimadzu Corporation, has been actively assisting Asian developing countries to monitor and manage POPs by providing scientific training and technology since 1996.

In the past 15 years, the UNU Project, Environmental Monitoring and Governance in the Asian Coastal Hydrosphere, has helped the partner countries to enhance their overall capacity in POPs research. International symposiums have been held annually to disseminate the project’s achievements as well as the latest international developments in POPs.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Stockholm Convention on POPs. This year’s international symposium will be held at the UNU Headquarters in Tokyo on 25 Oct, 2011. It will focus on what has been achieved in the past 10 years and what should be done in the future to further strengthen the research and technological capacity of developing countries and to better implement multilateral environmental agreements like the Stockholm Convention. This conference will also celebrate the 15th anniversary of partnership between the UNU, the Shimadzu Corporation, and the national partner institutions across Asia.