Halogen-Free Flame Retardant Lobbying
Political and legislative background
On the 1st April 2008, the European Court of Justice ruled that a chemical called decaBDE which forms part of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) should be banned in electronics and electrical applications according to EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS).As a result, decaBDE can no longer be used in this specific product area.
This ruling followed numerous international studies which brought the use of decaBDE into question. These different studies have found decaBDE to have significant adverse affects in humans - having been found in both blood streams and breast milk – and in the environment.
Because of the environmental and safety concerns over decaBDE, Canada and American states such as Washington and Maine have already banned the chemical to varying degrees. Other states considering restrictions include Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan and Maryland.
Dartex Coatings engagement with the political process
Dartex believe that there is no logical justification for continuing to allow the use of decaBDE in non-electronic areas now that environmentally friendly alternatives, such as MelaphosFR™, are available on the market. In many cases these alternatives perform better than Deca-BDE as flame retardants. Dartex has therefore begun to engage in the political process to ensure that the full extent of studies identifying risks in using decaBDE, are taken into account.
With the help of a public affairs consultancy, Dartex has identified and approached members of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee who will ultimately be responsible for reviewing the RoHS Directive – in which there is potential to ban the wider use of Deca-BDE . As part of this we have engaged in a contact programme to ensure that the public policy environment received balanced and scientifically evidenced information, rebutting claims made on parliamentary papers, that environmentally friendly alternatives were not available and not safe. Dartex has secured several European parliamentarians as advocates, who subsequently also made supportive representations to the Commission in the form of parliamentary questions and letters.
This EU activity has also been coupled with a campaign in the UK to inform parliamentarians, the government and civil servants. Through this work Dartex has acquired a large group of UK Parliamentary supporters. Many of these have signed an Early Day Motion in support of our issue which can be found at:
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36397&SESSION=891
If you would like to find out more about our work in this area or support us in our efforts to promote environmentally friendly alternatives, please contact Shaun Ambrose-Jones on Shaun.Ambrose-Jones@dartexcoatings.com