PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS - POP - COMPLIANCE

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) regulations apply to most products sold in various countries worldwide. Here are the current EU POP substances listed in PDF and Excel formats:

Persistent Organic Pollutants - The Enviropass Testing Approach

As with Europe RoHS, Enviropass recommends the documentary approach with suppliers and subcontractors for POP testing against legal obligations like the European regulation 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants.

This method offers the best value for your money, avoiding dozens of expensive testings for potentially dangerous substances present in a tested product.

Are you looking for a POP certificate of compliance for your products? Get an online presentation!

Classic POP

By using Classic POP, you allow Enviropass to tackle the documentary assessment of your products, including:

Up-to-date data collection with your suppliers/subcontractors;

Quality validation of documents and risk analysis;

Preparation of analysis results and certificates of compliance.

Note that you can apply for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP), RoHS, and REACH SVHC testing services at a lower cost.

Deluxe POP

In addition to the Classic POP services, Deluxe POP gives you the tools to take control over POP compliance.

Deluxe POP includes:

Products assessment regarding the POP requirements and delivery of a certificate of compliance;

Training in products auditing allows you to conduct future analysis and update your declarations of conformity (DoC) yourself.

What are the Persistent Organic Pollutants?

POP is an acronym for Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Typically, POP chemicals are halogenated organic compounds that massively originate from industrial activities and manufactured goods, such as electrical and electronic equipment as well as other types of products.

POPs tend to migrate and accumulate in the cold parts of the world, like the poles.

POP substances exhibit high lipid solubility, because of their brominated or chlorinated molecular structures.

Thus, POPs migrate into the body’s lipids and the environment hardly destroys them. In other words, they bioaccumulate.

The main concern with the POP chemicals is that they may cause health and environmental issues by:

impacting the immune, neural, and endocrine systems of humans and animals; and

possibly contributing to hormonal disorders, cancer, mutations, birth defects.

What Does it Mean to be POP Compliant?

Since the Stockholm Convention of 2004, many jurisdictions and markets around the world have regulated several POP substances.

As a result, various countries prohibit or restrict certain POP substances, such as:

Canada – SOR/2012-285 Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, and;

The European Union with:

- the Regulation 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants (recast) replacing the Regulation 850/2004,

- Europe RoHS, REACH SVHC, and amendments.

Examples of heavily restricted POP substances include:

Polybromodyphenyl ethers (PBDE), which is a plastic flame retardant, restricted under both the POP and Europe RoHS regulations;
Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB), which is another plastic flame retardant, restricted under both the POP and Europe RoHS regulations;
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB), that has massively been used in PVC coating, in electrical wiring, and electrical components, as an insulant and insulating fluid of transformers;
Mirex;
Alkanes C10-C13 Chloro (short-chain chlorinated paraffins) (SCCPs), used in rubber, coating, and plastic cables;
Pentadecafluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts and related substances, restricted under the REACH Annex XVII list.

Under the European Regulation 2019/1021, article 3, any POP substances listed in Annex I are prohibited on their own, in mixtures or in articles. However, some exemptions possibly apply, according to article 4 of that same POP regulation, under certain conditions. For example, it is the case of:

Some of the RoHS PBDEs substances, like Tetrabromodiphenyl ether, Pentabromodiphenyl ether, Hexabromodiphenyl ether, Heptabromodiphenyl ether, Bis(pentabromophenyl) ether, and decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE);
PFOS;
Hexabromocyclododecane;
SCCPs.

Why Should Care about Persistent Organic Pollutants in Products?

Selling products containing POP chemicals above the national permitted limits is prohibited and can jeopardize the image of your company.

For example, the European Commission maintains the Safety Gate Rapex website exposing products and companies failing to comply with POP, but also RoHS, REACH SVHC, and other regulations.

Non-compliant products are usually withdrawn from the EU market, and product recalls are common.

Do you need to know more about POP and how you can verify compliance? Contact Enviropass!