**5. Identification and quantification of release of dioxin and furan unintentional persistence organic pollutant**

One of the major goals of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is the continuing minimization and, where feasible, ultimate elimination of unintentionally produced POPs. Parties are required to identify, characterize, quantify, and prioritize sources of releases of unintentionally produced POPs and develop strategies with concrete measures, timelines, and goals to minimize or eliminate these releases. Toward this end, parties must develop action plans as part of their National Implementation Plans (NIP) to identify, characterize, and address the releases of unintentional POPs Listed in Annex C of Stockholm Convention. Action plans to be developed according to Article 5 of the Convention shall include evaluations of current and projected releases that are derived through the development and maintenance of source inventories and release estimates, taking into consideration the source categories listed in Annex C of the convention tool.

According to UNEP [14], toolkit has been assembled for the purpose of assisting each country in identifying and quantifying sources of unintentional POPs that are located within the country's borders and estimating releases from those sources. Sources of POPs releases are of four general types, three of which are active, ongoing processes and one is a legacy of historic activities:


Some additional source categories and a strategy for identifying new source categories are presented in the toolkit (Annex C). It describes a step-by-step process to estimate PCDD/ PCDF releases from each source category to the following environmental media:

