Preview of New Chemicals to Be Added to The Stockholm Convention and The Rotterdam Convention

Convention

Preview of New Chemicals to Be Added to The Stockholm Convention and The Rotterdam Convention

Little Pro on 2017-11-14

The 13th meetings of the Stockholm Convention’s Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) and the Rotterdam Convention’s Chemical Review Committee (CRC) held in Italy in Oct 2017 have proposed more chemicals for listings under the the Stockholm Convention and the Rotterdam Convention. In this article, we will take a look at those new chemicals to be listed and analyze their impacts.

Outcomes of The 13th PRPRC and CRC Meeting

Technical experts from PRPRC and CRC have agreed and proposed to list the following chemicals under the Stockholm Convention and the Rotterdam Convention respectively. Adding them to the Conventions is still subject to the agreement of Congress of Parties (COP).

Convention	Chemicals Proposed for Listing
Stockholm Convention	Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), its salts and PFHxS-related compounds; The committe has not decided yet whether to list PFHxS in annex A, annex B or annex C.
Rotterdam Convention	2 pesticides and 1 industrial chemical: acetochlor, phorate and hexabromocyclododecane They are recommended for listings in annex III.

Decisions regarding candidate chemicals where consensus could not be reached for listings, including PFOA will be deferred to the next meeting scheduled in 2018.

Impacts of the Stockholm Convention

The Stockholm Convention has a big impact on both chemical industry and other sectors which supply or use listed chemicals (persistent organic pollutants) in their articles and parts.

A listed chemical is subject to global ban or restriction depending on which annex it is included. Certain uses can be exempt.

Annex A (Elimination): The production and use of chemicals on annex A must be eliminated unless there are specific exemptions;
Annex B (Restriction): The production and use of chemicals on annex B must be restricted;
Annex C (Unintentional Production): Measures must be taken to reduce the unintentional releases of chemicals on Annex C.

Impacts of the Rotterdam Convention

Chemicals listed in the Rotterdam Convention are not banned. However, the chemicals listed in Annex III are usually pesticides and industrial chemicals that have been banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons by two or more Parties. They are subject to Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure.

Reference

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