Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants

Overview

This Regulation, ((EU) 2019/1021) revokes Regulation (EC) No 850/2004 on persistent organic pollutants. It creates a legal framework to protect human health and the environment by prohibiting, phasing out, or restricting the production, placing on the market and use of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). 

POPs are chemical substances which stay in the environment, migrate into, and accumulate in the food chain and threaten human health and the environment. POPs can be found in pesticides, industrial chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and industrial by-products.

The purpose of this Regulation is to protect the environment and human health from POPs by prohibiting, phasing out, or restricting the manufacturing, placing on the market and use of substances. It is subject to:

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants. It also seeks to minimise and eventually eliminate releases of substances containing POPs and control waste containing them or contaminated by them.

This Regulation is implemented into UK legislation by the Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulations 2007.

A list of POPs and Government guidance on POPs may be found on the UK government website

Background

• Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are poisonous chemical substances that break down slowly and get into food chains as a result
• They can adversely affect human health and lead to serious health effects including certain cancers, birth defects, dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems, greater susceptibility to disease and damages to the central and peripheral nervous systems.
• They can adversely affect the environment around the world
• POPs can be transported by wind and water
• POPs generated in one country can and do, affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released
• They persist for long periods of time in the environment
• They can accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife, and pass from one species to the next through the food chain 
• Under the treaty, known as the Stockholm Convention on 22 May 2001, over 90 countries agreed to reduce or eliminate the production, use, and/or release of 12 key POPs

Many POPs were widely used during the industrial production boom after World War II, when thousands of synthetic chemicals were introduced into commercial use. Many of these chemicals proved beneficial in pest and disease control, crop production, and industry. These same chemicals, however, have had unforeseen effects on human health and the environment.

Common POPs