2025 Stockholm Convention Bans More Toxic Chemicals, But With Concerning Exemptions

Press Contacts: Pamela Miller [email protected], and Sarah Banapour [email protected]

2025 Stockholm Convention Bans More Toxic Chemicals, But With Concerning Exemptions

ANCHORAGE, AK – From April 28 to May 9, Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) participated in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Pollutants Conference of the Parties (COP) in Geneva, Switzerland, along with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of 676 public interest NGOs in 131 countries. ACAT Executive Director Pamela Miller also serves as IPEN’s Co-Chair.

The Arctic acts as a hemispheric sink for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) transported from lower latitudes. In a recorded presentation, Pamela Miller and ACAT Water Quality and Community Health Protection Coordinator Jasmine Jemewouk highlight how Indigenous Peoples in the circumpolar North face disproportionate exposures to toxic chemicals. The Stockholm Convention recognizes that Arctic ecosystems and Indigenous Peoples are particularly vulnerable to harm from these substances.

The COP agreed to add the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos and the group of long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCAs), a large subclass of more than 200 PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), to the Convention’s list of globally banned substances.

Last week, it also listed medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs) for global elimination. MCCPs are a large group of high production volume industrial chemicals commonly used in metal working fluids and in plastics, including in toys, flooring, kitchenware, and other products.

The continued use of MCCPs is especially concerning for the Arctic, which already shows elevated concentrations of these toxic chemicals.

“MCCPs pollute the global environment, contaminate breast milk of women throughout the world, and pose dire health threats,” said Pamela Miller. “The time is long overdue to end the production and use of these harmful chemicals. It is extremely disappointing that many exemptions have been allowed for MCCPs, given that there are safer alternatives for every use. We urge Parties to eliminate all uses of MCCPs and prevent the use of hazardous substitutes that pose similar threats to our health and healthy environments.”

Concerning the pesticide chlorpyrifos, one of the most widely used insecticides in the world, Dr. Samarys Seguinot Medina, ACAT’s Environmental Health Director, said,

“The science is clear and overwhelming concerning the severe health harms of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, particularly on the developing brains of children. It has been detected in Arctic air, snow, lake sediment, fresh water, sea water, marine fog, and ice and in biota, including traditional sources of food for Indigenous Peoples such as fish, caribou, and seals.”

While the listing of these chemicals mark progress toward protecting global health, ACAT and IPEN are raising concerns about the numerous exemptions included in the listing.

“We should not allow continued uses of the most dangerous chemicals known,” said Pamela Miller. “The work of the Convention and its expert committee has been undermined this week with the extensive number of exemptions introduced. Science must be the foundation of the Convention’s decisions, which must meet the Convention’s intent to protect the health of women, children, workers, Indigenous peoples, and future generations.”

In an unprecedented action, the COP also reopened a 2023 decision to ban the plastic chemical UV-328, allowing new exemptions for its use. This highly toxic substance has been linked in animal studies to damage to the liver and kidneys, endocrine disruption, and bioaccumulation. This decision disregards recent data demonstrating the need to increase protections against UV-328 and similar UV stabilizers, and reflects the influence of industry interest over science and public health.

ACAT urges the COP to uphold the Convention’s objective to protect human health and the environment by rejecting harmful exemptions and prioritizing public health over industry interests.

Background Notes: The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, adopted in 2001, is an international agreement by the nations of the world to address global chemical pollution. Its objective is to protect human health and the environment from the world’s most hazardous substances. The Convention aims to eliminate the production, use, and emissions of POPs while preventing the introduction of new chemicals with POP-like characteristics and ensuring the environmentally sound destruction of POPs waste stockpiles. The Convention sets out the actions that country Parties must take to achieve this. It also requires country Parties to reduce and, where feasible, eliminate releases of byproduct POPs chemicals.

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