The Causes of the Scientific and Regulatory Gap in the Listing of New Persistent Organic Pollutants into the Stockholm Convention

摘要

In 2015, the 11th meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC11) of the Stockholm Convention (SC) reviewed the potential listing of pentadecafluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), its salts, and PFOA-related compounds in the SC. The POPRC confirmed that pentadecafluorooctanoic acid met the criteria of Annex D and agreed to prepare a draft risk profile pertaining to that chemical for the Annex E evaluation stage. This included consideration of issues related to the inclusion of PFOA-related compounds that potentially degrade to PFOA, and the inclusion of PFOA salts. The main reasons why the POPRC did not reach an agreement on PFOA-related compounds were (1) on the basis of currently available reports, data on PFOA-related compounds is insufficient; and (2) the academic description of PFOA-related compounds is too ambiguous to make global regulatory efforts. The disagreement relates to the uneven development of chemical industries, technology, and legislation between developing and developed countries.