China Imposes Ban on Five POPs (Updated on June 6, 2023)

Update: 

On June 6, 2023, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), together with 10 other ministries, issued the Announcement on Environmental Risk Control Requirements for Five Persistent Organic Pollutants such as PCNs to adopt the proposed provisions for the elimination or restriction of HCBD, PCNs, PCP and their salts and esters, DecaBDE and SCCPs. The announcement took effect immediately.

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On December 30, 2022, the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee of China announced the ratification of Amendments* to Annexes A and C of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). As a party to this international treaty, China deposited the instrument of ratification to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on March 8, 2023.

*Five POPs have been added to the annexes of the Stockholm Convention. These five POPs include: 

According to Article 22 (4) in the Stockholm Convention, the abovementioned Amendments shall enter into force for China on the ninetieth day after the date of the deposit with the depositary of the instrument of ratification, i.e., to be effective on June 6, 2023. In this regard, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) made a draft declaration on March 15, 2023. It clarifies the specific control policies for each target POP, based on the international requirements in the Amendments and domestic requirements** in China’s first national list of priority new pollutants (2023 List). Comments for the control measures or their effective date are welcome before March 27, 2023.

** Four (HCBD, decaBDE, PCP and its salts and esters, SCCPs) of the target five POPs are listed in the 2023 List with their own control policies which have been in force from March 1, 2023.

Specific Control Policies in China

• Production, use, import and export of HCBD, PCNs, PCP and their salts and esters are prohibited (no exemptions).

• Production, use, import and export of decaBDE are prohibited, except for three uses (of which the exemption period ends on Dec 31, 2023):
  

1. Textile products that require anti-flammable characteristics, excluding clothing and toys;

2. Additives in plastic housings and parts used for heating home appliances, irons, fans, and immersion heaters that contain or are in direct contact with electrical parts or are required to comply with fire retardancy standards, at concentrations lower than 10% by weight of the part;

3. Polyurethane foam for building insulation.

• Production, use, import and export of SCCPs are prohibited, except for nine uses (of which the exemption period ends on Dec 31, 2023):

1. Additives in the production of transmission belts in the natural and synthetic rubber industry;

2. Spare parts of rubber conveyor belts in the mining and forestry industries;

3. Leather industry, in particular fatliquoring in leather;

4. Lubricant additives, in particular for engines of automobiles, electric generators and wind power facilities, and for drilling in oil and gas exploration and petroleum refining to produce diesel oil;

5. Tubes for outdoor decoration bulbs;

6. Waterproofing and fire-retardant paints;

7. Adhesives;

8. Metal processing;

9. Secondary plasticizers in flexible polyvinyl chloride, except in toys and children’s products.

• Enterprises and other producers and operators in China that emit HCBD and PCNs are required to take proper measures to effectively reduce emissions or eliminate emission sources.

It should be noted that chemical substances used for laboratory-scale research or used as reference standards do not apply to the above-mentioned prohibitions of production, use, import or export.