Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is a global agreement on the termination or restriction of the production, use and release of POPs which was signed in May 2004 by 79 states.

In this Convention the production, use and release of various organic chemicals or POPs with specific environmental properties - persistent, bioaccumulative and ubiquitous - is banned or restricted.

In a first step 12 chemicals were listed in the Stockholm Convention which are also known as "Dirty Dozen". Since the last conference with meanwhile 175 signatory states the list has grown to 10 pollutants and came into force in May 2012.

Further additional regulations are discussed. It is considered to include the short-chained chloroparaffins (SCCP), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), the chlorinated naphthalenes (CN), hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD) as well as pentachlorophenol (PCP) and its salts in the list of the Stockholm Convention.

All POPs, the original 12 ("Dirty Dozen"), the 10 new POPs included in the Stockholm Convention as well as the discussed further 5 POPs have been part of the analytical portfolio of the POPs competence center of Eurofins Food & Feed Testing laboratories in Germany for years.

Legal bases and guidelines

• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

Other interesting pages