Highlights for Friday, 4 October 2019

POPRC-15 participants

POPRC-15 participants gathered for in plenary on Friday morning for the final day of the meeting. Only a short session was required for members to complete the work that remained on the agenda, in part thanks to the full discussions delegates held in plenary on Thursday.With regard to the three chemicals under review at this meeting, the Committee decided:

• that the insecticide methoxychlor satisfies the Annex D screening criteria;
• that the industrial chemical Dechlorane Plus (and its syn-isomer and anti-isomer) satisfies the Annex D screening criteria;
• to adopt the risk management evaluation on the industrial chemical perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), its salts and PFHxS-related compounds, which recommends listing this substance in Annex A (elimination) to the Stockholm Convention with no exemptions.

Both methoxychlor and Dechlorane Plus will move to the second stage of the POPRC’s review process. The Committee also agreed to establish intersessional working groups to prepare draft risk profiles of each of these substances. PFHxS will be forewarded to the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention, at which parties will decide whether and how to list this substance.

This meeting marked the conclusion of Estefania Moreira’s tenure as Chair of the POPs Review Committee, and many members and observers expressed their deep appreciation for her leadership of the Committee’s work over the past six years. During this time, nine new POPs have been listed in the annexes to the Stockholm Convention. Expressing gratitude for her mentors, including the first POPRC Chair, Reiner Arndt, and current members of the BRS Secretariat Kei Ohno-Woodall and Abiola Olanipekun, POPRC Chair Moreira said that working with everyone participating in meetings of the POPRC had been a rich and joyful experience.

Chair Moreira gaveled the meeting to a close at 11:08 am.

POPRC Chair Estefania Moreira (Brazil) gavels POPRC-15 to a close, while Kei Ohno-Woodall and Abiola Olanipekun (BRS Secretariat) look on.

POPRC member Tamara Kukharchyk (Belarus) offers a gift to outgoing POPRC Chair Moreira.

POPRC member Jianxin Hu (China) expresses his appreciation for POPRC Chair Moreira's leadership.

POPRC members Amal Lemsioui (Morocco) and Rameshwar Adhikari (Nepal)

Incoming POPRC Chair Peter Dawson (New Zealand) and outgoing POPRC Chair Moreira with members of the BRS Secretariat

Maria Delvin (Sweden), POPRC member Martien Janssen (The Netherlands), Trine Celius (Norway), Christel Olsen (Norway), and Daniel Borg (Sweden)

POPRC members