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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;”

Recalling decision XXVI/5, which extended the global laboratory and analytical-use exemption until 31 December 2021, under the conditions set out in annex II to the report of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties,

Noting that Annex C, group I, substances (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) are currently not included in the global laboratory and analytical-use exemption,

Noting the 2018 report by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel, which notes that hydrochlorofluorocarbons will be required for laboratory and analytical uses after 2020,

Taking into account the adjustment agreed on by parties in 2018 to permit essential-use exemptions for hydrochlorofluorocarbons,

To include Annex C, group I, substances in the global laboratory and analytical-use exemption under the same conditions and on the same timeline as set forth in paragraph 1 of decision XXVI/5;

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The year is 2065. Nearly two-thirds of Earth's ozone is gone -- not just over the poles, but everywhere. The infamous ozone hole over Antarctica, first discovered in the 1980s, is a year-round fixture, with a twin over the North Pole. The ultraviolet (UV) radiation falling on mid-latitude cities like Washington, D.C., is strong enough to cause sunburn in just five minutes. DNA-mutating UV radiation is up 650 percent, with likely harmful effects on plants, animals and human skin cancer rates. Such is the world we would have inherited if 193 nations had not agreed to ban ozone-depleting substances, according to atmospheric chemists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Bilthoven.