The Persistent Organic Pollutants Regulations 2007 provide the top-up legislation required to meet obligations set out in EU Regulation 850/2004 on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). They establish competent authorities and create offences and penalties. The Regulations will not result in additional burdens as they do not contain any controls beyond what is already covered in the EU Regulations. The POP chemicals covered have not been made or used in the UK for quite some time.
POPs are chemicals that are toxic, persist in the environment, bioaccumulate in fatty tissues and biomagnify through the food chain and have the potential to be transported long distances and deposited far from their place of release. Regulation (EC) 850/2004 on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) entered into force in April 2004 as a control for POPs in the EU. It prohibits the production, use and placing on the market of twelve Persistent Organic Pollutants and allows the addition of new substances when these have been agreed under the Convention.
In addition, it provides legislation at the Community level to ban or control the production, use and placing on the market of thirteen chemicals, comprising of eleven pesticides and two industrial chemicals; and to minimise releases of three unintentionally produced by-products. It also includes provisions which require that waste consisting of, containing or contaminated by POPs shall be disposed of or recovered in such a way as to ensure that the POPs content is destroyed or irreversibly transformed.
