UNEP Stockholm Conv - Persistent Organic Pollutants
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) - Annex A, B & C and under Review
In 1995, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called for global action to be taken on POPs, which it defined as "chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment".
Annex A = Elimination
Annex B = Restriction
Annex C = Unintentional Production (subject to BAT and practices including replacement of feed materrials which are POPs or where there is a direct link between the materials and releases of POPs)
Following this, the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) and the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) prepared an assessment of the 12 worst offenders, known as the dirty dozen. The negotiations for the Convention were completed on 23 May 2001 in Stockholm. The convention entered into force on 17 May 2004 with ratification by an initial 128 parties and 151 signatories. Co-signatories agree to outlaw nine of the dirty dozen chemicals, limit the use of DDT to malaria control, and curtail inadvertent production of dioxins and furans. (from Wikipedia)
US (Bush!) signed but Congress never ratified. US is an observer but very actively engaged as lobbyist.
Parties to the convention have agreed to a process by which persistent toxic compounds can be reviewed and added to the convention, if they meet certain criteria for persistence and transboundary threat. POPs Review Committee (POPRC) proposes and parties meet every two years. The first set of new chemicals to be added to the Convention were agreed at a conference in Geneva on 8 May 2009. http://chm.pops.int/Programmes/NewPOPs/The9newPOPs/tabid/672/language/en-US/Default.aspx. Nine groups of chemicals were added - with considerable exemptions for recycling and various uses in 2009.
POPRC is continuing to evaluate new chemicals to add to the treaty, http://chm.pops.int/Convention/POPsReviewCommittee/AboutPOPRC/tabid/221/language/en-US/Default.aspx
including a set of chemicals that degrade into one of the chemicals under consideration http://www.eiatrack.org/docs/swe_PFOS_Dossier.pdf