30 October 2014: The tenth meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC 10) to the Stockholm Convention on POPs adopted decisions on dicofol, decabromodiphenyl ether, pentachlorophenol, its salts and esters, and alternatives to perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perflurooctane sulfonyl fluoride, among other issues. POPRC 10 convened on 27-30 October 2014, in Rome, Italy.

All the chemicals on POPRC 10’s agenda are currently used or produced, as noted by IISD RS’ Earth Negotiations Bulletin on the meeting, which drew increased attention to the POPRC’s work, presented challenges assessing new or confidential data, and raised the salience of socio-economic considerations in risk management evaluations.

Based on the recommendations from POPRC 9 and POPRC 10, the seventh Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (COP 7) could add three new substances to the Convention, bringing the total number of listed POPs to 26.

In addition to the agenda items on Technical Work, the Committee also considered: Coordination and collaboration with other scientific subsidiary bodies; Effective participation; Workplan for the intersessional period; Venue and date of the next meeting; and Other matters.

The ENB’s brief analysis of the meeting considers the implications of considering proposals to list live chemicals and assessing the alternatives to some applications of a live chemical currently listed in the Convention. In particular it examines: how POPRC drew considerable interest from a wide array of government and non-governmental observers; the role of information, “which proved both plentiful and confidential;” and the increased salience of socio-economic considerations included in the risk management evaluations.

The next meeting (POPRC 11) was agreed for 19-23 October 2015, in Rome, Italy. [IISD RS Meeting Coverage]