Management of Chemical Substances in Products

Last Update: Nov 10, 2009

Concept of the management of chemical substances

Panasonic has been manufacturing products in line with its basic policy, which is to minimize the use of chemical substances that might adversely affect human health and the environment throughout their life cycles.

In 1999, we published our Chemical Substances Management Rank Guidelines (Ver.1) and have thoroughly managed chemical substance use since then. Specifically, we classify substances use of which is prohibited by law and regulation in specific regions as Prohibition Level 1 substances, and globally prohibit their use in our products immediately. Also, for chemical substances use of which is not yet to be prohibited by law, we classify those that might damage the environment as Management Level substances. In addition to these, we classify substances in Management level with particularly high environmental concerns as Prohibition Level 2 substances and partially prohibit the use of them in our products.

Information to our suppliers:About the Green Procurement

Chemical Substances Management Rank Guidelines Ver. 6 (for Products)

Ranks		Definitions
Prohibited substances	Level 1	Substances whose use in products is prohibited by laws and regulations Substances whose us in products will be prohibited by laws and regulations within one year Substances whose use in products is prohibited within Panasonic
Prohibited substances	Level 2	Substances whose use in products will be prohibited by treaties or laws on and after specified date Substances whose use in products is voluntarily restricted by Panasonic
Managed substances		Substances whose actual use status must be further researched and whose impact on health and safety as well as appropriate treatment must be considered Substances whose use or non-use and the amount of use must be further researched

List of managed substances

(Japan) Chemical substances specified as Class I Specified Chemical Substances under the Act on the Evaluation of Chemical Substances and Regulation of Their Manufacture, etc.
(Japan) Substances the manufacture of which is prohibited under the Industrial Safety and Health Act
(Japan) Poisonous substances specified under the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Law
(EU) RoHS and ELV Directives
(EU) CMR-Cat. 1,2, Annex I, Council Directive 67/548/EEC on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the classification, packaging and labeling of dangerous substances
(EU) Substances restricted under REACH regulation (Annex XVII)
(EU) Substances of very high concern (SVHC) under the REACH regulation
(EU) Substances that meet the criteria for PBT, vPvB, POPs under the European Chemical Substances Information System
(Industry) Joint Industry Guideline JIG-101 A: Level B substances
(Industry) Global Automotive Declarable Substances List (GADSL)

List of prohibited substance groups

Level 1
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Asbestos Specified organic tin compounds Short-chained chlorinated paraffin (C10-13) Specified brominated flame retardants (PBB and PBDE) Azo dyes and pigments forming specified amines Polychloronaphthalene (number of chlorine is three or more) Perfluorooctane sulfonate acid and its salts	Cadmium and its compounds Lead and its compounds Hexavalent chromium compounds Mercury and its compounds Ozone-depleting substances (excluding HCFC) Formaldehyde Specified benzotriazole
Level 2
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and its compounds, and vinyl chloride copolymer

Formulating new guidelines with the aim of precautionary approach

As represented by the REACH regulation in the EU, the world is moving toward the achievement of the goal agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in 2002. Specifically, the goal aims to produce and use all chemical substances in a manner that minimizes their impact on human health and the environment by 2020.

In support of the precautionary approach proposed in the Rio Declaration made at the Earth Summit in 1992, Panasonic will: (1) expand a scope and identify the use of chemical substances in our products; (2) assess environmental impacts of the potentially hazardous substances contained in our products in turn, when a scientific evidence is not fully proven; and (3) based on a result of the assessment, accelerate our initiatives to reduce or discontinue the use of the substances of high concern.
In order to further improve its management of contained chemical substances, Panasonic revised the Chemical Substances Management Rank Guidelines and published the sixth version in March 2009.

Panasonic´s initiatives to reduce chemical substances with environmental impact

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