Environmental Project No. 1179 2007 – Mapping of decabromodiphenylether (decaBDE) in other products than electrical and electronical products

Mapping of decabromodiphenylether (decaBDE) in other products than electrical and electronical products

1 Introduction and purpose

The Danish EPA has instigated the project ” Mapping of decabromodiphenylether (decaBDE) in other products than electrical and electronical products” in connection with a call for tenders of the project in the consumer project area.

The project’s purpose is described in the tender documents as follows:

”To map the use of decaBDE in products that are not included in the RoHS Directive, including cables, furniture, and textiles, together with an assessment of which substances or techniques that are used instead.”

The Danish EPA background for this project has been a desire to obtain information on the use of decaBDE outside the product groups that are already regulated through the RoHS Directive (Regulation no 1008 of 12.10.2004).

In the tender documents the Danish EPA has set the stage that the project be completed in two phases.

The first phase is a mapping and collection of present knowledge of the use of decabromodiphenylether (decaBDE) in products that are not included in the RoHS Directive, whereas a second phase consists of a completion of chemical analyses of selected product groups with the purpose of procuring deficient knowledge of occurrence and amounts of decaBDE in these product types.

The purpose is clarified in the following manner in the associated description of the project:

1. A mapping of use of and trend in use of decaBDE in Danish produced and imported products that are not included in the RoHS Directive

2. An assessment (and description) of present alternatives to decaBDE

3. As required possible chemical analyses for decaBDE in selected consumer products.

This report describes the result of the abovementioned items 1-2. As mentioned item 3 is completed at a possible later stage.

DecaBDE used as additive to obtain a fire-retardant effect. Thus normally these are concentrations in percentage level in the products. In connection with this investigation this means that concentrations on trace level, due to accidental contamination are uninteresting and thus not included in this mapping.