EU Commission Publishes Recast on Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulation

Vol. 1088 | 15 Jul 2019

The European Commission has published a recast legislation on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP), Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The Regulation replaces the previous legislation Regulation (EC) No 850/2004, which has been substantially amended.

Background

The Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulation is the EU mechanism for implementing various International agreements on pollutants, including the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the 1998 Aarhus Protocol on POPs and the Stockholm Convention on POPs.

The revised version of the European requirements is contained in the new legistion, Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The updated Regulation is intended to clarify confusion resulting from multiple amendments of the original 2004 law. It maintains the provisions of the existing POPs Regulation and its amendments but includes some changes to terminology to encourages consistency with other relevant EU chemical legislation such as REACH.

Major Changes in Requirements

In addition to the revision of the text, there have been some changes to the restrictions which the Regulation enforces. The major changes are summarised below:

Brominated Fire Retardants

DecaBDE - Bis(pentabromophenyl) ether/ (decabromodiphenyl ether) has been included as a new addition to POP, having previously been restricted by REACH Annex XVII. The inclusion has also included a reduction in the requirement.

Other brominated fire retardants. (Tetra BDE (Tetrabromodiphenyl ether), Penta BDE (Pentabromodiphenyl ether), Hexa BDE (Hexabromodiphenyl ether) and Hepta BDE (Heptabromodiphenyl ether)), have also been subject to a requirement change.

SUBSTANCE	REGULATION (EU) 2019/1021 - REQUIREMENT	SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT CHANGES
Tetrabromodiphenyl ether Tetra BDE	Substances - 10 mg/kg Mixtures/Articles - 500 mg/kg for sum of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE	Mixture/Articles - Change to 500 mg/kg for SUM of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE.
Pentabromodiphenyl ether Penta BDE	Substances - 10 mg/kg Mixtures/Articles - 500 mg/kg for sum of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE	Mixture/Articles - Change to 500 mg/kg for SUM of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE.
Hexabromodiphenyl ether Hexa BDE	Substances - 10 mg/kg Mixtures/Articles - 500 mg/kg for sum of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE	Mixture/Articles - Change to 500 mg/kg for SUM of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE.
Heptabromodiphenyl ether Hepta BDE	Substances - 10 mg/kg Mixtures/Articles - 500 mg/kg for sum of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE	Mixture/Articles - Change to 500 mg/kg for SUM of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE.
Bis(pentabromophenyl) ether (decabromodiphenyl ether) DecaBDE	Substances - 10 mg/kg Mixtures/Articles - 500 mg/kg for sum of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE	New Addition to POP Requirement change in POP Regulations from REACH Requirement change - Substances - 1000 mg/kg to 10 mg/kg Articles/Mixtures - 1000 mg/kg to   500 mg/kg for SUM of tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and decaBDE.

The published requirement of 500 mg/kg for mixtures and articles for these substances is to be reviewed by the Commission by 16 July 2021.

Pentachlorophenol and its Salts and Esters

There has been the inclusion of pentachlorophenol (and its salts and ester) within the scope of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulation.

The use of these substances will no longer be permitted.

Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and its derivatives (PFOS)

The restriction of PFOS and its related substances remains unchanged at

• Substances/Mixtures - < 10 mg/kg
• Articles - < 1 μg/m2

However, there are certain details of CAS numbers of relevant perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and its derivatives (PFOS) which are now included

The changes are summarised below:

SUBSTANCE	REGULATION (EU) 2019/1021 - REQUIREMENT	SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT CHANGES
Pentachlorophenol and its salts and esters	Not permitted	New Addition to POP Requirement change in POP from REACH Substances/Mixtures - 1000 mg/kg to 'Not permitted' Articles -Requirement is 'not permitted'. Only unintentional trace contaminant.
Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and its derivatives (PFOS)	Substances/Mixtures - 10 mg/kg Articles - 1 μg/m2	No requirement changes New CAS # included in scope - 1763-23-1, - 2795-39-3 - 29457-72-5, - 29081-56-9, - 70225-14-8, - 56773-42-3, - 251099-16-8, - 4151-50-2, - 31506-32-8, - 1691-99-2, - 24448-09-7, - 307-35-7 and others

Effective Date

The recast Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 repeals the previous POP Regulations and amendments and is effective on 15 July 2019.

A link to the legislation is available below

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019R1021

For additional information please contact:

Mike Redshaw
mike.redshaw@intertek.com
+44 (0)1942 265700