The GMP2 CEE Region dataset contains information on POPs concentrations in ambient air and human tissue - breast milk.

The second global data collection that can be seen in this dataset was held during 2013–2014 and it contained information on 24 POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention when the second global data collection took place. The data were sampled between 2008 and 2014, however also older data were reported.

According to the UN structure, the region of Central and Eastern Europe consists of 23 countries. For the purpose of the first evaluation, 5 countries of the Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) were added to the CEE regional report. There is no current production of POPs in the CEEC region. The main sources of POP pollution are obsolete and unused pesticides (including the ones with POPs properties) in agriculture, POPs-containing equipment, use of industrial technologies resulting in unintentional releases of dioxins and furans and formation of dioxins and furans in the open combustion.

The only long-term monitoring program focused on POPs in ambient air performed in the CEE region is the integrated monitoring program at Košetice observatory in the Czech Republic which is also a part of EMEP background monitoring.

Monitoring effort has been coordinated on the international (UN ECE/EMEP; Nordic Environment Research Programmes; Swedish Baltic Programme), national (Czech Republic in all environmental matrices and human tissues for more than 20 years), and local bases (City of Gdansk; Krakow) and carried out by the individual research institutions and governmental authorities according to their competence. These are often Hydrometeorological or Environmental institutes responsible also for reporting, including the international reporting.

The region collaborated mainly with the following programmes and strategic partners:

• AMAP (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme)

• EMEP (Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Programme)

• GAPS (Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling network)

• GMP UNEP – WHO Milk Survey

• Kosetice (national programme in the Czech Republic, part of EMEP, GAPS and MONET monitoring)

• MONET (Passive sampling MOnitoring NETwork)

Except for the Czech Republic, no systematic and regular human biomonitoring of POPs has been performed in the Central and Eastern European countries since 1998. With regards to dioxins, dl-PCBs and marker PCBs, the 3rd and 4th round of WHO-coordinated exposure studies have given the most reliable results because, in spite of a small number of milk samples, the samples were collected, stored and shipped according to a WHO protocol and pooled samples were analyzed by the same laboratory meeting the strict QA/QC criteria.