Guidance for the inventory of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs

Scope

The objective of this document is to provide step-by-step guidance that enables Parties to establish an inventory on the establishment of inventories of hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether, tetrabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether (and hexabromobiphenyl) listed under the Convention in 2009. The inventory should provide Parties with baseline data on them at the national level. Such data would serve as a basis for Parties to develop strategies/action plans for meeting their obligations under the Convention. 

Main target audience

This document will be of use to national focal points for the Convention, the coordinator of the NIP review and update process, and task teams responsible for establishing the inventory. It will also be of interest to other stakeholders concerned with the elimination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and hexabromobiphenyl (PBDEs and HBB).

Latest version of the guidance (revised January 2017)

Decision SC-7/10 requested parties and others to provide comments to the Secretariat based on their experience in using the most up-to-date versions of guidance documents to assist parties in developing, reviewing and updating their national implementation plans, as listed in part A of the annex to the present decision, on how to improve their usefulness, and requests the Secretariat, subject to the availability of resources, to update the guidance documents listed in part A of the annex, as appropriate. The Secretariat has revised the draft guidance (March 2015 version) based on the comments received. The revised January 2017 version of the draft guidance for the inventory of PBDEs is given below.

Review of the Guidance

The process for review of the guidance has been initiated by decision SC-6/12 on the draft guidance for the inventory of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs. The request for information pursuant to decision SC-6/12 can be accessed here. The comments received in response on the draft guidance are available here. The draft revised guidance according to the comments received as of 31 March 2014 is available below in English only. The document is posted as a clean version, and a track changes version can be obtained on request from the Secretariat. Following the same process COP 7 by its decision SC-7/10 invited further comments to the draft guidance, based on their experience of using it, to be submitted to the Secretariat by 31 March 2016. The list of comments received and the responses is available here

COP-6 requested the Secretariat to forward the waste-related content of the draft inventory guidance documents to the appropriate bodies of the Basel Convention. The comments received are available here.

Draft revised guidance (as of March 2015)

 Draft revised guidance for the inventory of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (March 2015)
List of comments and responses on the draft guidance for the inventory of of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs
Draft revised guidance for the inventory of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (31 March 2014)

Version for COP-6 (as of July 2012)

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Other relevant documents

Recommendations on the elimination of brominated diphenyl ethers from the waste stream and on risk reduction for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride (PFOSF)

Guidance on feasible flame-retardant alternatives to commercial pentabromodiphenyl ether - 2009 (UNEP/POPS/COP.4/INF24)

Guidance  on considerations related to alternatives and substitutes for listed persistent organic pollutants and candidate chemicals 2009 (UNEP/POPS/POPRC.5/10/Add.1)

Supporting documents

Case studies

Case study in a hypothetical country A on POP-PBDEs in the Transport Sector
Case study on inventory of PBDEs in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and related waste (WEEE)

Some articles and papers

A Survey of PBDES in recycled carpet padding

Brominated Flame Retardants in Recycled Plastic Products

Identification of Flame Retardants in Polyurethane Foam Collected from Baby Products

Brominated flame retardants in products: Results of the Swiss market survey 2008

Screening e-waste plastics in Nigeria for brominated flame retardants using XRF – towards a methodology for assessing POPs PBDEs in the e-waste exports – Part 1

Assessing POP-PBDEs and BFRs in e-waste polymers in Nigeria– Part 2