Quirin Schiermeier,MunichTop astronomers are protesting that aproposal to close the Astronomical Instituteat the University of Basle in Switzerlandignores the institute’s strong track record in research.

The university’s governing councilrecommended on 22 January that thedepartment, along with the university’sinstitutes of geology and Slavic studies,should close by 2008.

Rolf Soiron, the businessman who chairsthe council, says that the closures wereneeded to consolidate finances and avoidduplication of training and researchfacilities in Switzerland.

The Swiss government, which supports

the consolidation of small universitydepartments, has backed the plan. “It is acourageous and exemplary move,” saysCharles Kleiber, the Swiss state secretary foreducation and science.

But astronomers are complaining thatthe decision was made in response to lowstudent numbers, without any externalscientific assessment of the institute’sperformance. In letters to Soiron, more than100 astronomers from around the worldprotested against the decision.

The institute has “produced by far themost careful and thorough dynamicalmodels of the Milky Way that are availableanywhere in the world”, wrote ScottTremaine, chair of astrophysical sciences at

Princeton University, New Jersey.Astronomers also criticized the

treatment of Eva Grebel, a rising star amonggalactic astronomers, who won tenure at theinstitute only last September.

“People will think that in Switzerlandyou can easily lose your job, even thoughyou are tenured. This is a blow to ourreputation,” says Willy Benz, anastrophysicist at the University of Berne and a member of the Swiss Science andTechnology Council.

The university defends the plan. “Thiswas not done in a rush. The board spentmonths coming up with a balanced reform,”says Maria Schoch, a spokeswoman for the rector. ■

Jim Giles,LondonThe clock is ticking for a troublesome set of chemical pollutants. Last week, a three-month countdown began towards theday when the Stockholm Convention onPersistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) comesinto force.

But environmental-health specialistswarn that the first phase of the agreement,drawn up in 2001, represents a relatively easy win. From May, the convention will banthe use of 12 types of pollutant of limited economic importance; but subsequent constraints on more financially valuablecompounds will be fiercely fought by chemi-cal manufacturers, the specialists predict.

The countdown towards implementationwas triggered on 17 February, when Francebecame the fiftieth country to ratify theagreement. Several countries, including the

United States and Britain, have yet to ratify it,but are preparing legislation to do so.

Environmentalists have campaigned foryears against POPs, a group of very stablecompounds that includes dioxins and thepesticide chlordane.POPs accumulate in ani-mals and plants at the end of the food chain,and have been linked to a range of humanhealth problems.

Chemical manufacturers accept that the12 substances covered by the first phase of theconvention are dangerous, and have alreadyphased some of them out.But Bo Wahlstrom,a Geneva-based scientific adviser at the United Nations Environment Programme,which brokered the treaty, predicts that it willbe far harder to incorporate compounds thatare still made and sold in large quantities.

Substances that are likely to spark dis-agreement include brominated flame retar-

dants such as hexabromocyclododecane(HBCD) and decabromodiphenyl ether(decaBDE). Tens of thousands of tonnes ofthese compounds are made every year,primarily as flame-retarding additives fortextiles, electrical equipment and buildingmaterials. The retardants can enter the environment during manufacture and dis-posal, and their stability means that they canbuild up in humans and animals over time.

The jury is still out on whether the currentlevel of exposure to these compounds pre-sents a health risk to people and animals, sayenvironmental-health researchers. But, theyadd, HBCD and decaBDE meet some of thecriteria for being classed as POPs.

Steve Robinson, chemicals assessmentmanager at the Environment Agency inWallingford, near Oxford, UK, says thatHBCD is toxic and accumulates in living tissue. He adds that industry is now runningtests to assess another criterion for it to beclassed as a POP: whether or not it persists inthe environment. So far, the only evidencefor decaBDE as a possible POP is that it has been shown to build up in the tissue ofanimals at the end of the food chain, such asharbour seals, birds of prey and dolphins (L. S. Birnbaum and D. F. Staskal Environ.Health Perspect. 112, 9–17; 2004).

The status of such contentious com-pounds will become clear when EuropeanUnion nations complete a risk assessment of flame retardants later this summer. TheBromine Science and Environment Forum,which represents bromine manufacturers,says that the industry is working with offi-cials on this assessment and that, so far, thestudies show no need for decaBDE or HBCDto be added to the convention. ■

➧ www.pops.int

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768 NATURE | VOL 427 | 26 FEBRUARY 2004 | www.nature.com/nature

Treaty calls time on long-term pollutants

Closure threat propels astronomers to institute’s aid

Harbour seals are among the creatures in which persistent organic pollutants may accumulate.

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