Press Release

December 11, 2006
  • Health & Chemicals

Second Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee Held

The 2nd meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Review Committee was held in Geneva, Switzerland from 6 to 10 November 2006 to consider listing chemicals to the Annex pursuant to Article 8 of the Stockholm Convention on POPs. The committee consists of 31 experts, including Dr. Masaru Kitano, professor of the school of science and technology of Meiji University, from Japan.

At the meeting, the committee examined the risk profiles and decided to develop draft risk management evaluations for 5 chemicals proposed at its 1st meeting, specifically Pentabromodiphenyl ether, Chlordecone, Hexabromobiphenyl, Lindane, and Perfluorooctane sulfonate.

For another 5 chemicals, newly proposed at this meeting (Octabromodiphenyl ether, Pentachlorobenzene, Short-chained chlorinated paraffins, Alpha hexachlorocyclohexane, and Beta hexachlorocyclohexane), the committee also decided to develop draft risk profiles to examine whether they have significant adverse human health and/or environmental effects such that global action is warranted or not.

The government of Japan contributes to the development of the risk management evaluations by providing information requested from the secretariat of the convention regarding the 5 chemicals proposed at the 1st meeting.

For Japanese