The Persistent Organic Pollutants Committee (POPRC) has the responsibility of reviewing chemicals to determine if they will be listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). At its eighteenth meeting, the POPRC picked up where it left off earlier this year when the Committee agreed to advance all the chemicals to their respective next stages of review.

The POPRC has a three-stage review process. In the first stage, parties nominate chemicals that may be POPs and the Committee determines if further scrutiny is warranted. There were no new nominations that will be presented to POPRC-18.

Three chemicals were under the second stage of review. At this stage, the Committee determines if global action is warranted, due to a chemical’s persistence, bio-accumulation, potential for long-range environmental transport, and adverse effects. A draft risk profile sets out what is known about a chemical against these criteria. The Committee considered three draft risk profiles for:

• Chlorpyrifos, a pesticide;
• Chlorinated paraffins with carbon chain lengths in the range C14-17 and chlorination levels at or exceeding 45% chlorine by weight, used as flame retardants, among other uses; and
• Long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCAs), their salts and related compounds, used in water and oil-resistant coatings for clothing, textiles, carpets, and food contact paper, and in firefighting foams, paints, adhesives, polishes, and cosmetics.

The POPRC undertook the final, third stage of review for Dechlorane Plus, a flame retardant, and UV-328, a stabilizer used in some personal care products, rubber, and coatings.

POPRC aimed to adopt recommendations for each of these chemicals, to list them in Annex A (elimination), B (restriction) and/or C (unintended release) of the Stockholm Convention. When the Stockholm Convention was adopted in 2001, it listed 12 POPs known as the “dirty dozen.” As of December 2020, that list has expanded, based on POPRC recommendations, to include 31 substances, including pesticides, industrial chemicals, and by-products.

The POPRC is a 31-member expert committee established tasked with reviewing proposals submitted by a party to list a new substance under the Stockholm Convention. The committee has eight government-designated experts from Africa, eight from Asia and the Pacific, three from Central and Eastern Europe, five from Latin America and the Caribbean, and seven from Western European and Other States.

POPRC-18 convened at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy, from 26-30 September 2022.