In December, China brought an end to the production, use, import and export of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), an organic compound containing bromine used as a flame retardant in external thermal insulation foam.
Since the 1980s, HBCD has commonly been used to improve the fire protection of buildings. But, in 2013, it was listed in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants because it of the high risk it poses to human health. Exposure to HBCD has potential adverse effects on the functioning of the hormone, nervous and immune systems.
HBCD has been found in sewage sludge, in fish, in air, water and soil. Famously, in 2004, the World Wildlife Fund took blood samples from eleven European environment ministers and three health ministers, and detected HBCD in the blood of every single one of them.
To reduce health risks, countries have taken measures to prohibit HBCD production and eliminate remaining stocks. China officially ratified the Stockholm Convention amendment at the end of 2016 but was granted a five-year-long exemption for expanded and extruded polystyrene foams.
To prepare for the 26 December 2021 deadline to completely end HBCD production in China, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) jointly developed a project with Foreign Environmental Cooperation Centre of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The project was approved for funding by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in June 2019.
In the eastern province of Shandong, where China's HBCD production has been concentrated, the UNIDO project improved the supervision and management of HBCD, conducted demonstration activities on how to substitute, reduce and phase out HBCD, and facilitated the environmentally sound disposal of HBCD-containing construction waste.
UNIDO project manager, Carmela Centeno, noted that the project not only promoted the elimination of production and use of HBCD but, importantly, developed and evaluated alternatives to HBCD.
By November 2021, the eight remaining HBCD production sites in China - all located in the city of Weifang - had been dismantled and the waste water, residue and garbage containing HBCD generated in the process of equipment dismantling had been disposed of according to hazardous waste specifications.
