Hazardous substances used in IT products is a risk to human health and the environment. Stephen Fuller, Criteria Development & Compliance Manager at TCO Development explains why banning substances isn’t enough and that identifying safer alternatives is the way forward.
This text is an excerpt from the report Impacts and Insights 2019.
Stephen Fuller, TCO Development
We have worked with the IT industry and gathered information on flame retardants, risks and which alternatives they used for more than 15 years. Our conclusion is that lack of transparency is an industry-wide problem when it comes to chemical hazard. While some hazardous substances have been phased out through legislation or voluntary initiatives, too little is known about what’s being used to replace them. The only safe way forward is to assess the alternatives and make sure they are safer before using them.
Clearly, if we are to move toward a sustainable life cycle for IT products, we have to know what they contain. As an independent organization, our ambition is to drive faster progress toward chemical transparency, better data and therefore also provide a pathway toward safer substitutions. With