Environmental Project, 1109 – The EU Eco-label and Health

The EU Eco-label and Health

2 Background

Various eco-label schemes were established in a number of member countries in the beginning of 1990’s and shortly thereafter the EU eco-label regulation was adopted (1992). The background for establishing the schemes was the growing understanding of the need for reducing the environmental impact from the rapidly increasing purchase and use of goods in the member states. Products were recognised to be one of the primary challenges after member states had been able to reduce the direct emissions from industry during the 70’s and 80’s.

The schemes were established on a voluntary basis, as it was realised to be very difficult to regulate an area characterised by global trade governed by international regulations regarding free trade. It is characteristic for developed countries that most of the products consumed are imported and most of the products manufactured are exported.

The drivers of the various schemes were anticipated to be green frontrunners among the manufactures, a willingness from authorities to select green goods and service for public purchase, and finally that a high percentage of the consumers were willing to select green goods where a choice between similar products were possible.

More than 10 years after the establishment of the labels, the success of the labels are lower than expected for most of them – including the EU eco-label. Some of the reasons are:

Frontrunners have had difficulties in establishing a financially attractive market and a number of internationally leading companies have refused to apply the labels for their products
The authorities have not yet used the power of public purchasing to promote the market regarding green products
In spite of numerous investigations indicating the opposite, consumers have not been willing to purchase labelled products when the product is a valid alternative to existing products, even if the labelled product would be slightly more expensive than the traditional product.

Although a significant increase in the number of sold Eco-label products has been seen during the last 3 years (2003-2005), partly due to the EU-Flower week in 2004, the relative coverage of eco-labelled products in the market is still insignificant compared to the entire marketed products.

Consumer investigations do indicate that consumers are more likely to pay attention to issues regarding their purchase that is related to their immediate surroundings: Health for themselves and their relatives, protection of their immediate environment, etc. Ozone-layer protection, green house gasses and similar issues are of less concern, probably because it is difficult to explain in a few words how this may have impact on their immediate surroundings in a reasonable near future.

Thus, one of the core issues of immediate concern for the consumers is the chemical content of the goods purchased and the risk that they could be harmful to their own or their relatives’ health. Consequently, a way for the label to increase its coverage of the market is related to the extent to which the label criteria are able to address the challenge of covering health aspects of the purchased products, so that the producer may advertise the product as being less harmful to the consumer than comparable products.

The reasons for consumer concern are obvious. Today we apply around 100,000 chemical substances in chemical preparations and products of which we have very poor knowledge. Very often newspapers report new findings of hazardous substances in everyday products including children’s toys. This information to the consumers causes high concern.

The new chemical regulation, REACH, is expected to be adopted in 2007 and to be fully implemented 11 years later in 2018. In short REACH obliges manufacturers and importers of chemical substances (above a certain yearly tonnage level) to document that the substance may be used without unacceptable risk for man and environment. The documentation will appear in the safety data sheet and in an annexed exposure scenario. Professional downstream users of chemical substances are obliged to use the substances only within the uses identified and to apply the Risk Management Measures (RMM) (protection equipment and measures) prescribed in the SDS and exposure scenario. The outcome for consumers (when implemented) is that articles (goods) purchased will be guaranteed by the producer not to be of significant risk to the consumer in normal (prescribed) uses, provided the substances included in the article are covered by REACH obligations. The applicant for an eco-label will find it easy to identify the data needed to document the compliance with eco-label criteria – as long as the chemicals contained in the products belong to the fraction of the 100,000 chemical substances covered by the regulation.

Once the principles of the new regulation have been adopted, it is anticipated that both consumer organisations and professional downstream users, who have committed themselves in relation to sustainable development, will put pressure on the chemical supply chain to adopt the REACH requirements quicker than what is prescribed by the official implementation period. This has often been seen for other product related chemical regulations. Eco-labels may have a role for the supplier of goods to document the compliance with the principles of REACH. The provisions are that the EU eco-label covers both health and environment in a systematic way regarding chemicals and that updates scheduled for the next 11 years take REACH requirements into consideration.

The Eco-label criteria may also request that all substances above a “level of insignificance” shall be known by the producer and should fulfil REACH requirements despite that they may not all be above the use limits defined in the regulation. The license holder should guarantee the absence of “harmful effects” in the product. In this way the holder of the Eco-label may apply both “health” and environmental arguments in the marketing of the label.

Eco-labels may also support REACH in relation to the requirements to apply substitutes for very hazardous substances (the so-called CMR substances) whenever available. If eco-labelled products have succeeded in applying non-hazardous alternatives for such substances, authorities may refer to eco-labelled products as examples of relevant substitution possibilities.

REACH targets the regulation of chemical substances. The regulation will also have impact on the content of chemical substances in articles (goods), although hazardous substances used below the threshold volumes per producer and year may still appear. Eco-labels may (and should) play a role to restrict the use of hazardous substances beyond the requirements in REACH in both imported and EU produced goods.

Many industry frontrunners regarding environmental objectives may apply eco-labels in the following ways:

As a holder of eco-label licenses,
Purchase of eco-labelled products (to be applied in production or for internal consumption),
Use of the Eco-label criteria and supporting documentation for their own product design,
Use of the criteria as part of their purchase policy

During the last 5-10 years the industry frontrunners have moved from a fragmented focus on environment to a sustainable development focus covering health and environment and including social issues and occupational health. Presently, most of these companies’ work is targeted at improving the image in the market or/and work regarding “damage control” in relation to being challenged by the news media. The companies need a publicly documented and supported set of product criteria applicable for either marketing of products with an eco-label attached or applied as background documentation for company development of “sustainable” products in its own context.

One of the problems of placing health at the same level as environment is that the complexity increases and makes the development of criteria and the compliance documentation both more difficult and more expensive. However, the label should develop continuously in line with the conceptual understanding in the market and thus fulfil the needs for an applicable market tool. If the label fails to be part of this development, it may be reduced in market importance and instead other (private) labels may fill the gap