The Rotterdam Convention’s Chemical Review Committee (CRC) has met for a second time, discussing chrysotile asbestos and various other chemicals.

The CRC of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade took place in Geneva from 13-17 February 2006. Participants discussed, inter alia, the outcome of the second meeting of the conference of the parties; the risk evaluations and trade restrictions under other multilateral environment agreements and their relevance to chemicals eligible for listing in Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention; the report of the Bureau on the preliminary review of notifications and proposed priorities for chemicals scheduled for review by the Chemical Review Committee; the review of notifications of final regulatory actions to ban or severely restrict a chemical; and the consideration of the draft decision guidance document for chrysotile asbestos.
The main outcomes of the meeting included:
• a decision taken by consensus to agree to the text of the draft decision guidance document for chrysotile asbestos, and the submission of this text to the Conference of the Parties at its third meeting for a decision on possible inclusion of chrysotile asbestos in Annex III of the Convention;
• a recommendation that the requirements of the Convention for inclusion of both endosulfan and tributyl tin had been met, and work would start on drafting a decision guidance document. These chemicals will be forwarded to the COP for a decision on inclusion at its fourth meeting (late 2008) provided that the text is finalised at the meeting in March 2007; and
• agreement that one of the notifications under consideration met the requirements of annex II for the chemicals alachlor, mirex, cyhexatin and dicofol (as soon as a second notification that meets the requirements of annex II is submitted, a decision guidance document will be drafted).
Participants also took up a number of procedural matters, including the content of papers on chemicals assessed or regulated under the Stockholm Convention or the Montreal Protocol, and how these should be managed under the Rotterdam Convention.
Link to further information
The Rotterdam Convention’s web site