The third meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC.3) of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) took place from 19-23 November 2007, in Geneva, Switzerland.
POPRC.3 considered several operational issues, including the naming of commercial products and mixtures and the listing of precursors. The Committee approved the risk management evaluation for five chemicals, and recommended that COP.4 consider listing under Annex A, B, or C: lindane; chlordecone; hexabromobiphenyl (HBB); pentabromodiphenyl ether (pentaBDE); and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), its salts and PFOS fluoride (PFOSF). Risk profiles were approved for four chemicals, and POPRC.3 adopted a draft work programme to prepare draft risk management evaluations for those chemicals, namely on: commercial octabromodiphenyl ether, pentachlorobenzene, and alpha and beta hexachlorocyclohexane.
Five chemicals were slated to reach the final and third step of the review process, a further five entered the second phase, and one new chemical was nominated. As such, POPRC.3 was an opportunity for the Committee to draw on experience gained during the previous two meetings and make recommendations to the COP. POPRC.3 however encountered significant hurdles as its members disagreed over how to address several of the “high-stakes” chemicals on the agenda, in particular short-chained chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) and PFOS. While consensus was reached on recommending listing PFOS acid, its salts, and PFOSF in Annex A or B of the Convention, a decision on the SCCPs risk profile was postponed until POPRC.4, as was the consideration of the newly nominated chemical, endosulfan. Nevertheless, POPRC-3 successfully moved decisions on nine chemicals to the next stage of the listing process. *)
POPRC.4 is scheduled to convene from 13-17 October, 2008 in Geneva Switzerland.
*) Text extracted from the ENB Vol. 15 No. 155 of Monday, 26 November 2007, published by IISD