Environmental and health screening profiles of phosphorous flame retardants

A LOUS follow-up project

Please note that this report has been updated and a new version together with a joint statement has been published in November 2016.

The joint statement from Clean Production Action and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency addresses the use of GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals screening tool in the report.

The report is a survey that identifies phosphorous flame retardants and develops screening level substance hazard profiles, to be used for substitution consideration in a European REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) context by companies using flame retardants. The screening hazard profiles have been prepared based on a modified version of a method for hazard assessment of chemicals known as GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals (GreenScreen®). GreenScreen® was developed based on the US EPA "Design for the Environment" (DfE) programme, as well as other international and national frameworks including Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) and REACH in the European Union. It consists of a hazard profiling part and a "benchmarking" part aimed to assess the relevance of a substance for consideration in a substitution context. For the purpose of the current project, the method has been reviewed and adapted taking into account a European regulatory context and the focus in this project on chemical hazard assessment in relation to consumer products.

Dansk resume
Rapporten er en undersøgelse, der identificerer fosforbaserede flammehæmmere og udvikler fareprofiler på screeningsniveau for de enkelte stoffer, som i europæisk REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) sammenhæng skal kunne bruges af virksomheder der anvender flammehæmmere. Farescreeningsprofilerne er blevet udviklet på baggrund a en modificeret metode, der er kendt som GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals (​​GreenScreen®). ​​GreenScreen® er baseret på den amerikanske miljøstyrelses "Design for the Environment" (DfE) program samt på internationale og nationale reguleringer, herunder Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) og REACH i EU. Den anvendes til at opstille fareprofiler og tildele Benchmark Scores, som medvirker til at vurdere et givent kemisk stof i en substitutionskontekst. Metodens anvendelighed som beslutningsværktøj, der kan bruges af virksomheder i deres bestræbelser på at erstatte farlige stoffer i produkter, er blevet evalueret i en europæisk lovgivningsmæssig kontekst og på baggrund af dette projekts fokus på farevurdering af kemikalier i relation til forbrugerprodukter.