The Seventh Meeting of the Parties decided:
. to urge Parties to organize National Consultative Committees to review and identify alternatives to laboratory and analytical uses and to encourage the sharing of information concerning alternatives and their wider use;
. to encourage national standards organizations to identify and review those standards which mandate the use of ozone-depleting substances in order to adopt where possible ODS-free solvents and technologies;
. to urge Parties to develop an international labeling scheme and encourage its voluntary adoption to stimulate awareness of the issue;
. to adopt an illustrative list of laboratory uses as specified in Annex VII.1 (Annex IV of the report of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties) to facilitate reporting as required by decision VI/9 of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties;
. to exclude the following uses from the global essential-use exemption, as they are not exclusive to laboratory and analytical uses and/or alternatives are available:
(a) refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment used in laboratories, including refrigerated laboratory equipment such as ultra-centrifuges;
(b) cleaning, reworking, repair, or rebuilding of electronic components or assemblies;
(c) preservation of publications and archives; and
(d) sterilization of materials in a laboratory;
. to request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to evaluate the current status of use of controlled substances and alternatives and report progress on the availability of alternatives to the Ninth Meeting of the Parties and later meetings;
. to urge Parties operating under Article 2 to provide funding within their countries and on a bilateral basis for Partied operating under Article 5 to undertake research and development and activities aimed at ODS alternatives for laboratory and analytical uses;
. to agree that controlled substances used for laboratory and analytical purposes shall meet the standards for purity as specified in decision VI/9.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro.7/12 Decision VII/11 (paras. 2-9))
The Ninth Meeting of the Parties decided:
1. that for 1999, for Parties not operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the Protocol, production and consumption necessary to satisfy essential uses of controlled substances in Annexes A and B of the Protocol only for laboratory and analytical uses, as listed in annex IV to the report of the Seventh Meeting of the Parties, are authorized, subject to the conditions applied to exemption for laboratory and analytical uses as contained in annex II to the report of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties;
2. that data for consumption and production should be reported annually under a global essential-use exemption framework to the Secretariat so that the success of reduction strategies may be monitored;
3. to clarify that essential-use exemptions for laboratory and analytical uses of controlled substances shall continue to exclude the production of products made with or containing such substances.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro.9/12, Decision IX/17 (paras. 1-4))
The Tenth Meeting of the Parties decided:
1. to extend the global laboratory and analytical essential-use exemption until 31 December 2005 under the conditions set out in Annex VII.1 (Annex II of the report of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties);
2. to request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to report annually on the development and availability of laboratory and analytical procedures that can be performed without using the controlled substances in Annexes A and B of the Protocol;
3. that the Meeting of the Parties shall each year, on the basis of information reported by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel in accordance with paragraph 2 above, decide on any uses of controlled substances which should no longer be eligible under the exemption for laboratory and analytical uses and the date from which any such restriction should apply;
4. that the Secretariat should make available to the Parties each year a consolidated list of laboratory and analytical uses that the Parties have agreed should no longer be eligible for production and consumption of controlled ozone-depleting substances under the global exemption;
5. that any decision taken to remove the global exemption should not prevent a Party from nominating a specific use for an exemption under the essential uses procedure set out in decision IV/25.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro.10/9, Decision X/19).
The Eleventh Meeting of the Parties decided to eliminate the following uses from the global exemption for laboratory and analytical uses for controlled substances, approved in decision X/19, from the year 2002:
(a) testing of oil, grease and total petroleum hydrocarbons in water;
(b) testing of tar in road-paving materials; and
(c) forensic finger-printing.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro.11/10, Decision XI/15).