ChemFORWARD Announces Verified SAFER Flame Retardants Now Available by Trade Name from Clariant and FRX Polymers

ChemFORWARD, a leader in creating broad access to chemical hazard data and safer alternatives, is expanding their SAFER™ program to include raw materials used in the electronics sector. 

Leading suppliers of flame retardants, Clariant and FRX Polymers, have earned the SAFER designation for key products after successfully completing a rigorous third-party assessment and verification process that considers both human and environmental safety. This effort is further evidence of a growing movement to use full chemical hazard assessments to verify safety claims rather than relying on regulatory and restricted substance lists. 

Consumer concern and the number of significant regulations of chemicals in electrical and electronic products are increasing across the globe at a rapid pace. Leadership companies are recognizing that more needs to be done beyond compliance with existing chemical regulations or avoidance of substances on restricted-from-use lists to protect workers, customers, and the environment, and to avoid costly disruption to the supply chain. Sole reliance on regulatory compliance or on list-based chemical management can lead to problematic material selection and use decisions because those 'negative' lists neither provide a complete understanding of a chemical's full hazard profile nor do they tell you what's safer and appropriate for use.

As an example, in Google's most recent Restricted Substances Specification, they signal a more proactive approach to chemical management advising, “Vendors should assess and evaluate ingredients in their material formulations using a comprehensive chemical hazard assessment framework and proactively implement safer alternatives where possible. In order to reduce the potential for regrettable substitutions when phasing out a chemical of concern, suppliers are required to perform an alternatives assessment using a comprehensive chemical hazard assessment framework such as ChemFORWARD. The supplier should focus on selecting chemistry with inherently low hazard toxicological properties.”

To accelerate proactive selection of safer chemistry, Apple and Google in partnership with ChemFORWARD recently announced the availability of a comprehensive set of chemical hazard assessments for phosphorus-based and other non-halogenated flame retardants used in electronics in an effort to create transparency and a chemical hazard knowledge database that will enable the value chain to select safer alternatives. While the assessments were sponsored by Apple and Google, this shared dataset enabled Clariant and FRX to use existing chemical hazard assessments already populated in the ChemFORWARD platform to rapidly and cost-effectively assess their trade name products. 

While chemical hazard assessments are just one part of the decision matrix, they have traditionally been expensive, inconsistent and housed on private systems. ChemFORWARD’s globally harmonized shared repository breaks through these barriers to provide cost-effective, comprehensive, scalable screening of ingredients for suppliers.

Art Fong, Environmental Technologies Smarter Chemistry Lead at Apple explains, “We’re proactive in promoting the use of safer materials and chemicals. This work extends beyond our products, as we push for a global transition to materials that are safer to use and reuse. Our collaboration with ChemFORWARD has resulted in an easy-to-use knowledge database of authoritative chemical hazard assessments that will help product and design engineers select materials to develop the next generation of innovative electronic products, and empower our suppliers to not only meet our safety requirements, but also to find alternatives that are safer, are better for the environment, and deliver the performance we need.”

Moving beyond a single chemical data to trade names is the next step in accelerating supply chain adoption of safer alternatives. “The industry needs a trade name approach to assessing chemicals. A trade name ties a chemical product to a specific producer. The same chemical produced by different manufacturers can have different properties, different impurities, different levels of impurities, partially because they use different production processes. Trade name assessments provide greater transparency and make it easier for everyone to use assessment information throughout the value chain.” explains Adrian Beard, Marketing Manager at Clariant and Chairman of pinfa, an association of flame retardant manufacturers committed to fire safety and improving the health and environmental profiles of their products.

Marc Lebel, President & CEO of FRX Polymers explains, “The most frequent question asked by OEMs or retailers is, “What will be the alternative if I instruct suppliers not to use a certain flame retardant, or a class of flame retardants? The SAFER designation provides a simple, transparent, answer to this question, based on hazard information produced by methodologies recognized by regulatory bodies around the world. This is the surest way to avoid the risk of regrettable substitution.”  

Safer chemistry leads to safer materials that ultimately enable a circular economy.  "Google is a champion for the role of safe chemistry and healthy materials in unlocking the circular economy. Designing resources with safe chemistry from the start continues to be an important priority for material design and specification and is why Google continues to work with and support ChemFORWARD on building a repository of robust, verified chemical hazard assessments and make them available to any industry." explained Mike Werner, Circular Economy Lead at Google.

Turning chemical data into positive impact takes more than comprehensive toxicology data and assessing ingredients. Amplifying safer alternatives and making them freely available for broad adoption is a key imperative for the safer chemistry movement. While SAFER listings will be freely available on the ChemFORWARD website and housed in the ChemFORWARD chemical optimization platform, they will be amplified by some of the leading supplier marketplaces through partnerships.

To learn more about SAFER and start your own journey of discovery visit our website at www.chemforward.org/safer or contact info@chemforward.org.

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