UN CSD lntersessional Meeting on Phasing Lead Out of Petrol

by Maria Rapuano and K W James Rochow
Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning

A primary objective of the Workshop was to allow countries to share strategies for the successful phase out of leaded gasoline. Ministers (chiefly energy and the environment) from over 20 countries were represented, as well as NG0s (including the Alliance) and the private sector.

All attendees agreed -- and the technical and cost-benefit presentations overwhelmingly confirmed -- that lead should be phased out of gasoline internationally. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would follow up the Workshop by carrying out several activities: produce and disseminate proceedings of the Workshop; prepare a resolution based on themes developed in the Workshop for presentation at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD); host meetings in Puerto Rico and Mexico to focus on phasing out leaded gasoline in the Americas; marshal technical resources under current EPA programs to assist in developing phase-out plans; and to strongly urge the CSD at its forthcoming April meeting to become a central clearing-house of information on the leaded gasoline issue.