Two pesticides and two brominated flame-retardant chemicals are under consideration for global phaseout through the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

The pesticides nominated for addition to the convention are chlordecone as well as hexachlorocyclohexane isomers, which include lindane, an insecticide used to treat head lice. Pentabromodiphenyl ether and hexabromobiphenyl are the flame retardants nominated for control under the pact, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Treaty partners meeting May 2–6 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, established a group of experts called the POPs Review Committee to evaluate these and future chemical nominations under the Stockholm convention. The committee will make recommendations to governments on whether more chemicals, including the four newly nominated ones, should be added to the 12 substances currently controlled by the Stockholm convention (C&EN, Dec. 18, 2000, page 4).

The European Union proposed the listing of chlordecone and hexabromobiphenyl. Norway nominated pentabromodiphenyl ether, and Mexico proposed hexachlorocyclohexanes, according to UNEP.

U.S. officials attended the meeting only as observers because the U.S. is not a party to the convention. 

The World Chlorine Council and the International Council of Chemical Associations said they welcomed the formation of the POPs Review Committee for risk-based assessment of nominated chemicals.

Also at the Stockholm convention meeting, governments agreed that 25 developing countries need to continue using DDT inside houses to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Treaty partners will review progress on the development of “safe, affordable, and locally effective alternatives to DDT” in 2008, UNEP says.