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A Toxics-Free Future

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Low POPs Content Levels Must Be Low

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At the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Conferences of the Parties (COP) in April 2017, key decisions will be made that define what is included as POPs waste. The definition will be based on a threshold concentration for a range of specific POPs (e.g. dioxin, PCBs, PFOS, etc.) and any waste containing more than that threshold concentration value will be defined as "POPs waste."’ Such POPs waste will be subject to measures as required under Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention to ensure that it is “Disposed of in such a way that the persistent organic pollutant content is destroyed or irreversibly transformed.”

IPEN has developed a briefing paper addressing these threshold concentrations which are known as Low POPs Content levels. The values that IPEN has proposed to be adopted for Low POPs Content are based on the protection of human health and the environment and based on fully referenced sound science. It should be highlighted that setting strict Low POPs Content levels is virtually the only way to prevent the transboundary movement of POPs waste such as incinerator residues and some electronic-wastes from industrialised countries to lower income countries. IPEN encourages delegates from Parties to the Conventions and observers to review this briefing paper and support the IPEN proposals for Low POPs Content.