In October 2023, global chemical experts from around the world gathered in Rome to participate in the POPS Review Committee under the Stockholm Convention and concluded that chlorpyrifos could cause significant adverse human health and/or environmental effects due to its long-range environmental migration, which warranted global action.
The decision comes just a week after experts from 31 countries agreed that chlorpyrifos meets the criteria set out in the Rotterdam Convention because it poses a risk to human health. The Rotterdam Convention empowers 165 countries that are parties to the Convention to make informed decisions on future pesticide imports. Both decisions will be submitted to the Conference of the Parties in 2025.
At the POPS Review Committee in Rome, experts from 31 countries and five territories around the world recommended that chlorpyrifos be advanced to the risk management assessment stage of Annex F of the Stockholm Convention. This decision was made due to concerns about the dangers of chlorpyrifos to human health and the environment.
This marks a step closer to listing chlorpyrifos in the Stockholm Convention, which sets out the global ban on persistent organic pollutants (pops).
The initial Stockholm Convention negotiations were concluded in Stockholm, and States have completed negotiations and consultations on the Convention. The Convention entered into force on 17 May 2004, after being ratified by an initial 128 groups and 151 signatories. Co-signed an agreement to ban nine persistent organic pollutants. The Convention also agrees that it can be reviewed and supplemented if new chemicals meet certain criteria for persistent and transboundary threats.
On 8 May 2009, at a meeting of the Convention in Geneva, a new group of chemicals was added to the convention.
China has acceded to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. China officially became a party to the Convention in 2004, which means that it has committed to comply with the provisions of the Convention and take measures to reduce and control the production, use, release and dissemination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). This means that China has fulfilled its international obligations related to POPs in global cooperation to protect the environment and human health from these harmful substances.
Chlorpyrifos is currently prohibited from being used on vegetables in China, and once the variety is included in the Convention, its use in China is likely to be further compressed.
There are still 1127 registered pesticide varieties containing chlorpyrifos in China. Regardless of the number of registrations and sales, chlorpyrifos is still the main product of many enterprises. Timely adjustment of product layout, advance planning of alternative products is urgent.
Alert! Chlorpyrifos review or reshape the enterprise product landscape
2023 11/10