11th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-11)
to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

On Friday, POPRC-11 convened for its final day. In the morning, the POPRC decided that the screening criteria have been fulfilled for pentadecafluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and established an intersessional working group to collect information on PFOA, its salts and some related chemicals. The Committee discussed the draft risk profile and decision for dicofol and agreed to return to the issue later in the day. The Committee adopted the intersessional workplan and decided that the next meeting will be held from 19-23 September 2016 in Rome, Italy.

Plenary was suspended in the afternoon to allow time for the drafting groups to continue work on decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), and dicofol. A Friends of the Chair group on short-chained chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) met during lunch and a small, informal group provided feedback to the Secretariat on the "Science to Action" roadmap to engage stakeholders and enhance science-based action in the Stockholm Convention's implementation.

Plenary resumed at 6:00 pm. In what Chair Gastaldello Moreira called a "historic decision," the Committee agreed that SCCPs are likely, as a result of long-range environmental transport, to lead to significant adverse human health and environmental effects such that global action is warranted. The POPRC also agreed to defer further consideration of the draft risk profile for dicofol to POPRC-12. The POPRC further agreed to recommend that the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention list commercial-decaBDE in Annex A of the Convention, with an exemption for some critical spare parts, to be defined, for the automotive and aerospace industries.

Chair Gastaldello Moreira thanked participants for their efforts and gaveled the meeting to a close at 9:04 pm.