NEWS
ENVIRONMENT Fluorochemicals under fire MARIA BURKE
The EU has come under fire from NGOs over its actions at the latest conference on the Stockholm Convention, which deals with persistent organic pollutants (POPs). While the meeting agreed to ban the industrial chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the EU requested five-year global exemptions for its use in medical textiles.
The NGOs, including the Center
for International Environmental Law, say the EU has shown ‘a disturbing disrespect’ of the UN’s review process. They are unhappy that the EU nominated PFOA for listing, but ‘suddenly’ requested this additional exemption at the meeting. The request goes against expert recommendations as safer alternatives exist, they say. ‘In requesting this exemption, the EU has effectively lowered the bar in global chemicals management and brought other countries in line with its own weak regulation,’ says Dorota Napierska of Health Care Without Harm Europe. ‘This will have a
PLASTICS & POLYMERS Partnership on plastic MARIA BURKE
The world’s environment ministers have amended the Basel Convention on hazardous waste to include plastic in a legally binding framework they hope will better regulate global trade in plastic waste. An estimated 100m t of plastic now
pollutes the oceans, 80-90% of it from land- based sources. The conference, held in Geneva in May 2019, also agreed to establish a new Partnership on Plastic Waste to mobilise business, government, academic and civil society in implementing the new measures. The new rules will come into force in 2020. ‘I’m proud that Parties to the Basel
Convention have reached agreement on a legally binding, globally reaching mechanism for managing plastic waste,’ says Rolph Payet, UN Environment’s executive secretary of the Basel, Stockholm and
Rotterdam Conventions. ‘The fact that close to 1m people signed a petition urging Basel Convention Parties to take action is a sign that public awareness and desire for action is high.’ Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, points out the decision means contaminated and mixed plastic wastes will require prior consent from receiving countries before they get traded, with the exceptions of mixes of polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate. ‘[It’s] a highly welcome step towards restoring a measure of accountability. However, it only goes part of the way. What we – and the planet – need is a comprehensive treaty to tackle the global plastic crisis.’ WWF is calling for a global legally binding treaty covering every stage of the plastic lifecycle and ensuring governments, businesses and individuals
are held accountable for the plastic they produce, consume and discard. Progress was also made on two other
conventions. Two new chemicals are now banned from use under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (see above): the pesticide dicofol, and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), its salts and related compounds with time-limited exemptions. Meanwhile, the pesticide phorate and the industrial chemical hexabromo- cyclododecane are now subject to the Prior Informed Consent Procedure under the Rotterdam Convention on trade of hazardous pesticides and industrial chemicals, which allows countries to decide on future imports. Governments also agreed to approve procedures and mechanisms on compliance with the Rotterdam Convention, seen as a crucial step for improving implementation of the convention.
significant direct impact on the amount of PFOA released into the environment, as PFOA and PFOA-related substances are used in significant amounts in the treatment of medical textiles.’ Other five-year global
exemptions were agreed for PFOA and related substances in semiconductor manufacturing, worker-protection textiles, medical devices and photographic coatings. The Parties granted additional exemptions to China, the EU and Iran for PFOA use in producing fluoropolymers and electrical wires; and placed a new five-year deadline to end PFOS use in firefighting foams. In a statement, European
Commission officials point out that, in the EU, PFOA is subject to a restriction under REACH regulations, which foresees an exemption until 2023 for ‘membranes intended for use in medical textiles, filtration in water treatment, production processes and effluent treatment’. This was recommended because of data on the performance of alternatives in applications that could affect
human health and environment, such as medical textiles. The statement continues: ‘In
the Stockholm Convention, the POP Review Committee asked for more detailed information on such applications of PFOA and, in absence of this, concluded not to recommend the exemption. The exemption agreed at the [meeting] was narrowed down and is more specific than the one in the REACH restriction and the one assessed by the POP Review Committee.’ Manufacturers around the
world have worked with regulators to phase out PFOA and related
long-chain PFAS, comments Jessica Bowman, executive director of the FluoroCouncil. ‘Listing PFOA under the Stockholm Convention with minimal exemptions will help further this transition globally.’ Exemptions were removed
for another fluorochemical, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and its salts, and a related compound, perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride, in aviation hydraulic fluid and other speciality applications. However, the Parties did not agree a deadline to phase out the pesticide sulfluramid, which degrades into PFOS.
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BASTIAAN SLABBERS/GETTY
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