At its fifth meeting, by decision SC-5/5 the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention had requested the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to develop terms of reference for a technical paper on the identification and assessment of alternatives, to the use of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid in open applications at its seventh meeting and requested the Secretariat to commission the technical paper, resources permitting, based on the terms of reference developed by the Committee, for consideration by the Committee at its eighth meeting. It had also requested the Committee to develop recommendations on the basis of the technical paper for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its sixth meeting.
At its seventh meeting, the Committee adopted terms of reference for the technical paper set out in annex I to the decision POPRC-7/5. The Committee also approved a format for the collection of information on alternatives to the use of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid in open applications and a possible outline of the technical paper, which can be found in document UNEP/POPS/POPRC.7/INF/22/Rev.1. Furthermore, the Committee established an ad hoc working group to undertake the activities requested in paragraphs 5 and 7 of decision SC-5/5 and agreed to work in accordance with the workplan set out in annex II to decision POPRC-7/5.
Parties and observers were invited to submit information using the approved format for the collection of information and the ad hoc working group prepared a draft technical paper.
Documents
The following documents were sent from the Secretariat to the Official Contact Points and National Focal Points:
Parties and observers are invited to review and provide technical comments on the draft technical paper on the identification and assessment on alternatives to the use of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid in open applications to the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee by 22 June 2012.
Submissions will be appreciated in electronic files by e-mail to:
ssc@pops.int and awarmuth@pops.int.
Should this not be possible please forward hard copies to:
Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention
Att: POPs Review Committee
Ms. Andrea Warmuth
United Nations Environment Programme
11-13 chemin des Anémones
CH-1219, Chatelaine, Geneva, Switzerland
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 8098
If you have any further questions regarding this invitation or if you would like to receive hard copies of the documents from the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee, please do not hesitate to contact Ms. Andrea Warmuth (e-mail: awarmuth@pops.int; telephone +41 22 917 8853).