Laboratory and analytical uses

Pursuant to Decision X/19 (4), the Secretariat is listing below decisions by the Parties on laboratory and analytical uses that should no longer be eligible for production and consumption of controlled ozone-depleting substances under the global exemption:

• Uses excluded from the global essential-use exemption (Decision VII/11 (6)):

1. Refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment used in laboratories, including refrigerated laboratory equipment such as ultra-centrifuges;
2. Cleaning, reworking, repair, or rebuilding of electronic components or assemblies;
3. Preservation of publications and archives; and
4. Sterilization of materials in a laboratory;

• Uses eliminated from the global exemption for laboratory and analytical uses (Decision XI/15)

1. Testing of oil, grease and total petroleum hydrocarbons in water;
2. Testing of tar in road-paving materials; and
3. Forensic finger-printing.

• Use eliminated from the global exemption for laboratory and analytical uses (Decision XIX/18)

1. Testing of organic matter in coal

• All uses of methyl bromide except those listed in decision XVIII/15 (see preamble of decision XXI/6)

Of relevance to the global exemption of laboratory and analytical uses are:

• Conditions applied to exemption for laboratory and analytical uses (Annex II of the Report of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties)
• Categories and examples of laboratory uses (Annex IV of the Report of the Seventh Meeting of the Parties)

Category of laboratory and analytical critical use to allow methyl bromide to be used (Decision XVIII/15(2))

Subject to the conditions applied to the exemption for laboratory and analytical uses contained in annex II to the report of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties, it was decided by the Parties to the Montreal Protocol at their Eighteenth Meeting to adopt a category of laboratory and analytical critical use to allow methyl bromide to be used:

“(a)      As a reference or standard:

(i)         To calibrate equipment which uses methyl bromide;
(ii)        To monitor methyl bromide emission levels;
(iii)       To determine methyl bromide residue levels in goods, plants and commodities;

(b)        In laboratory toxicological studies;

(c)        To compare the efficacy of methyl bromide and its alternatives inside a laboratory;

(d)        As a laboratory agent which is destroyed in a chemical reaction in the manner of feedstock;”