If you have ever wondered why PFOA and PFOS are no longer intentionally used in nonstick cookware coatings, the Stockholm Convention is a major part of the answer. This international treaty - signed by 186 parties worldwide - targets the most persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals on the planet. Its decisions have directly shaped which chemicals manufacturers can and cannot use in products like air fryers and cookware.
Understanding the Stockholm Convention helps parents make sense of why certain chemicals disappeared from product labels, why others are still showing up as contaminants, and what the global regulatory trajectory looks like for the PFAS family of chemicals.
What the Stockholm Convention Actually Is
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is a multilateral environmental treaty adopted on May 22, 2001, in Stockholm, Sweden. It entered into force on May 17, 2004, after the 50th country ratified it. As of 2025, the treaty has 186 parties - making it one of the most widely adopted environmental agreements in existence.
The treaty targets a specific category of chemicals called persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. To qualify as a POP under the Convention, a chemical must meet four criteria: persistence (it does not break down easily in the environment), bioaccumulation (it builds up in the fatty tissues of living organisms and concentrates up the food chain), potential for long-range environmental transport (it can travel far from where it was released), and adverse effects on human health or the environment.
The Convention is administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and operates through three annexes that determine what happens to listed chemicals:
- Annex A (Elimination): Parties must ban the production and use of these chemicals, with limited specific exemptions
- Annex B (Restriction): Parties must restrict production and use to specified acceptable purposes
- Annex C (Unintentional Production): Parties must take measures to reduce unintentional releases of these chemicals
The initial "dirty dozen" chemicals listed when the treaty was adopted included well-known hazards like DDT, PCBs, and dioxins. Since then, the Conference of the Parties (COP) has added numerous chemicals through a rigorous scientific review process managed by the POPs Review Committee.
The PFAS Listings That Matter for Cookware
For families concerned about air fryers and cookware safety, the Stockholm Convention's PFAS listings are the most directly relevant decisions.