The sixth meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee was held from 11 to 15 October 2010 at the Conference Centre Varembé (CCV) in Geneva. The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) adopted a dozen decisions at its sixth meeting, including ones aimed at strengthening chemicals science on climate change and POPs. POPRC adopted the risk profile for hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and set up an intersessional working group to prepare a draft risk management evaluation to evaluate socio-economic implications of possible control measures for the chemical. POPRC also agreed to adopt the risk management evaluation for endosulfan and recommended listing endosulfan in Annex A of the Convention, with specific exemptions, a move that would lead to its elimination from the global market.
The committee recommended that the Parties to the Convention review a global study under preparation on persistent organic pollutants and climate change at its fifth Conference of the Parties. The POPRC also reviewed information on the nine POPs that were listed in August 2010, including perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS) and brominated flame retardants, and undertook technical review of the implications of recycling bromodiphenyl ethers (BDEs) as part of the new POPs work programme. The committee also finalized its guidelines on alternatives to PFOS and discussed other technical issues such as the proposal for the evaluation of the toxicological interaction of multiple chemicals. The POPRC will report its conclusions and make recommendations to the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP5) to be held from 25 to 29 April 2011 in Geneva.