Decision on Endosulfan at Stockholm Convention

The POPRC met in Geneva on 12-16 October 2009 and agreed that the insecticide endosulfan satisfied the criteria as a persistent organic pollutant. Following this decision, the Secretariat of the Convention will now invite all Parties and observers to provide technical comments and socio-economic information to enable the POPRC to evaluate possible control measures for endosulfan.
The outcome of this process will be the development of a draft risk management evaluation that considers such matters as alternatives, assessments of the positive and negative impacts of implementing possible control measures, waste and disposal implications, access to information and public education, and the status of control and monitoring capacity.
This evaluation will be developed and assessed at the next POPRC meeting in October 2010.
If the POPRC agrees that endosulfan passes the risk management evaluation phase, then in May 2011 a Conference of the Parties (to the Convention) will consider this evaluation and decide whether or not to list endosulfan and which control measure (ranging from restriction to elimination) is appropriate.