The first meeting of the Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) has taken place in Geneva.

The Committee, which met from 7-11 November, considered five chemicals proposed for inclusion in the Convention: Pentabromodiphenyl ether (proposed by Norway); Chlordecone (proposed by the EU); Hexabromobiphenyl (proposed by the EU); Lindane (proposed by Mexico); and PFOS (proposed by Sweden).
The Committee’s main task at this meeting was to evaluate whether the screening criteria in the Annex D of the Stockholm Convention were fulfilled. After evaluating each of the chemicals against the criteria on persistence, bioaccumulation, potential for long-range environmental transport and adverse effects, the Committee decided that all five chemicals fulfilled these criteria. The next stage of the process is to develop risk profiles in accordance with Article 8 and Annex E of the Convention. An invitation to Parties and observers to submit the information specified in Annex E of the Convention to inform the risk profiles, will be circulated shortly with a deadline towards end of January 2006 for providing the information. Intersessional working groups will be developing the draft profiles in advance of the second meeting of the Committee, which is scheduled to take place on 6-10 November 2006. Participants at the Committee’s first meeting also took decisions on several operational issues, including procedures for handling confidential information, work plans for intersessional activities, and criteria and procedures for inviting additional experts. The Committee elected Jacqueline Alvarez (Uruguay) as its Vice-Chair. A meeting report will be available online shortly (IISD sources).
Link to further information
POPs website