BNA Daily Environment Report -91 DEN A-5:

May 13 2009 GENEVA - At the midpoint of the second International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) May 13, delegates were grappling with fundamental questions about how to achieve the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management's (SAICM) goal of minimizing adverse effects of chemicals on human health and the environment.

Questions about whether ICCM should work on emerging issues such as perfluorinated chemicals, nanotechnology, chemicals in products, and electronic waste remained under discussion among the delegates.

Basic questions about the procedures to use to decide whether such work would proceed, how to monitor progress in achieving SAICM's goal by 2020, and ways to finance projects designed to achieve the agreement's goals also remained as discussion points on May 13.

ICCM's delegates represent national governments, intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations, chemical industry trade associations, labor groups, environmental and health advocates, and scientific organizations.

During the meeting and at side events (approved sessions that occur alongside the main ICCM) governmental and nongovernmental organizations highlighted efforts they have made since SAICM was agreed to in 2006 to improve global chemicals management. Participants include the European Union, North American countries, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), the U.N. Inter-Organization Program for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC), and the International Persistent Organic Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN)

Officially, ICCM has not determined how to measure such accomplishments.

Gregory Bond, corporate director of product responsibility for Dow Chemical Co. and an ICCA delegate, told BNA it is essential that SAICM have some type of measurement and reporting system so that parties that say they are implementing the agreement can be held accountable. ICCA is proposing a monitoring system that would allow interested parties to track the chemical industry's progress "warts and all," he said.

Struggling for Clear Path Forward

In the hallways, industry and environmental delegates voiced frustration about the vagueness or "fuzzy" nature of SAICM.

The United States acknowledged that it, too, was hearing concerns about a lack of direction at the meeting.

During the conference's morning session May 13, Daniel Reifsnyder, deputy assistant secretary for environment and sustainable development at the Department of State, told delegates that he was hearing in the hallways that myriad "shiny" issues were being focused on at ICCM rather than fundamental issues such as tracking progress made since 2006 in achieving the 2020 goal.

"There is a real sense of frustration and a feeling of dismay among many of the nongovernmental organizations, particularly in developing countries," IPEN delegate Mariann Lloyd-Smith, a senior adviser to the Australian National Toxics Network Inc., told BNA.

"Many of the developing country delegates appear to share this frustration," she added. It has been three years since SAICM was agreed to in Dubai, at the first International Conference on Chemicals Management, "and there is a sense that there is so much to be done and not a clear process to do it," Smith-Lloyd said (68 DEN A-5, 4/13/09).

Focus Shifts to Emerging Issues

As government and industry representatives said during open sessions of the meeting or privately to BNA, Smith-Lloyd said the focus of the meeting had shifted from the tasks listed in SAICM's Global Plan of Action to emerging issues.

The Global Plan of Action consisted of a "menu" of more than 200 types of actions that parties could take to help achieve SAICM's goals.

The shift to emerging issues is understandable, Smith-Lloyd continued, because the issues are pressing and because they were presented to delegates with specific details that could be focused on regardless of whether a particular party agreed that ICCM should support one or another of the emerging issues.

Lloyd-Smith said she remains hopeful. "We have two-and-a-half days [left], so we will continue to fight for a good outcome."

The United States delegation also remained hopeful. Even though delegates were still discussing official ways to monitor SAICM's progress, presentations during the meeting and at side events confirmed that SAICM is a powerful tool that is showing results, Reifsnyder said May 13 during an afternoon session of the conference.

Bond, from the international chemicals association, told BNA that he too is hopeful that the conference will figure out ways to move forward and show that national governments, companies, and other organizations are helping to achieve SAICM's goal.

Participants including ICCA are strongly committed to SAICM, said Bond, pointing to negotiations taking place throughout the week often late into the night.

As a sign of support for SAICM, chief executives from chemical companies worldwide who also serve on ICCA's board are coming to Geneva to participate in Thursday's session and to hold a board meeting on Friday, while the conference continues, Bond said.


By Pat Rizzuto

BNA Daily Environment Report -89 DEN A-10:

GENEVA-The United States is proposing that countries develop voluntary national and international stewardship programs to reduce certain perfluorinated chemicals that can persist and bioaccumulate in the environment and can also be toxic, an official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said May 11.

John Shoaff, a member of the U.S. delegation attending the United Nation's second International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2), noted that the United States has been working with chemical manufacturers to reduce both releases and uses of the chemicals.

Shoaff, who was among those speaking about the U.S. proposal and perfluorinated chemicals in general during a side event held on the May 11-15 conference's opening day, was referring to 3M's voluntary decision to stop making perfluorooctyl sulfonate (PFOS) as of 2002 and to a perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) stewardship program through which companies have agreed to work toward elimination of PFOA in products and its releases to the environment (80 DEN A-2, 4/25/08).

The discussion on perfluorinated chemicals comes after parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) agreed to work toward the elimination of PFOS. (See related story in this issue.)

ICCM2 is designed to allow governments, intergovernmental organizations, chemical industry trade associations, labor groups, and nongovernmental organizations to discuss progress made in managing chemicals since countries first agreed to the voluntary Strategic International Agreement on Chemicals Management (SAICM) in 2006.

Delegates also will discuss whether countries should use the ICCM process to jointly address emerging issues such as perfluorinated chemicals, chemicals in products, nanotechnology, electronic waste, and lead in paint (68 DEN A-5, 4/13/09).

Unique, Desirable Functions � With Downside

Perfluorinated chemicals such as PFOS and PFOA have performed unique and desirable functions, Shoaff said. The chemicals have insulated wiring to prevent fires, been used to put out hard-to-extinquish oil fires, protected airplane breaks, and served other industrial functions, although PFOA is most commonly known for being used to make chemicals that are used in production of Teflon�.

Nevertheless, some perfluorinated chemicals-particularly ones with at many carbon and fluorine atoms such as PFOS and PFOA-persist in the environment, bioaccumulate up the food chain, and have harmed laboratory animals, the United States said in its proposal, which was officially introduced on May 4.

Kathleen Shelton of DuPont, who spoke on behalf of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee, discussed global reductions of PFOA and chemical manufacturers' efforts to develop alternatives. BIAC is an official representative of industry to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (198 DEN A-4, 10/14/08).

Developing alternatives for one group of perfluorinated chemicals alone is expected to cost $25 million, Shelton said. She referred to fluorinated telomers, some of which can break down into PFOA.

Continued Production in Some Countries

The challenge of reducing levels of these chemicals, which are found in low levels in people around the world, is complicated by the fact that companies in some countries, such as China, India, and Russia, continue to make them, said Henrik Harjula, of OECD. Detailed information about the production and use in such countries has been difficult to obtain, he added.

Harjula said that in June, OECD will release another global survey attempting to obtain better information about perfluorinated chemicals. OECD will seek information about fewer perfluorinated chemicals than it did in a previous survey effort to make it more manageable, he said.

A number of delegates attending the side event agreed with the U.S. goal of making it easier to exchange information about perfluorinated chemicals. Understanding the potential toxicity and other characteristics of alternatives, however, also is important, said a German delegate.

Joseph DiGangi, director of the Environmental Health Fund's Global Chemical Safety Program who is attending the meeting as part of the International POPs Elimination Network delegation, agreed and urged countries to look for alternatives beyond those that contain fluorine.

Some of the alternatives to PFOS and PFOA that have fewer carbon and fluorine atoms may be slightly less likely to build up in the food chain, but they remain persistent, DiGangi said.

A delegate from the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) agreed that perfluorinated chemicals with fewer carbon and fluorine atoms than PFOS and PFOA persist in the environment. That raises the question of whether society wants to release chemicals that do not break down, he said.


By Pat Rizzuto

  Version: May 2009