Targeted For Phaseout
Four more chemicals
proposed for control under persistent organic pollutant treaty
May 9 ,
2005
CHERYL HOGUE
Two pesticides and two brominated flame-retardant chemicals are
under consideration for global phaseout through the
Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POPs).
The pesticides nominated for addition to the convention are
chlordecone as well as hexachlorocyclohexane isomers, which
include lindane, an insecticide used to treat head lice.
Pentabromodiphenyl ether and hexabromobiphenyl are the flame
retardants nominated for control under the pact, according to the
United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP).
Treaty partners meeting May 2–6 in Punta del Este, Uruguay,
established a group of experts called the POPs Review Committee to
evaluate these and future chemical nominations under the Stockholm
convention. The committee will make recommendations to governments
on whether more chemicals, including the four newly nominated
ones, should be added to the 12 substances currently controlled by
the Stockholm convention (C&EN,
Dec. 18, 2000, page 4).
The European Union proposed the listing of chlordecone and
hexabromobiphenyl. Norway nominated pentabromodiphenyl ether, and
Mexico proposed hexachlorocyclohexanes, according to UNEP.
U.S. officials attended the meeting only as observers because
the U.S. is not a party to the convention.
The World Chlorine
Council and the
International Council of Chemical Associations said they
welcomed the formation of the POPs Review Committee for risk-based
assessment of nominated chemicals.
Also at the Stockholm convention meeting, governments agreed
that 25 developing countries need to continue using DDT inside
houses to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Treaty partners
will review progress on the development of “safe, affordable, and
locally effective alternatives to DDT” in 2008, UNEP says.
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2005
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/83/i19/8319pops.html
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