TCO, the health, environment and worker protection label for office and home electronics, has published draft TCO Certified Generation 8 criteria for comment until 31st May 2018.
The draft is presented as ambitiously driving sustainability. Most criteria are the same for all product categories. Concerning chemicals, the draft criteria documents particularly highlight as problematic heavy metals and brominated flame retardants, stating that – for TCO: “Halogens are problematic from both a health and environmental perspective throughout the product life cycle and should be phased out”. The draft criteria state that plastic parts of significant size (>5g to >25g depending on the product category) must not intentionally contain halogens in flame retardants, plasticisers or polymers, with exceptions for printed wiring boards, electronics components and cable insulation. Furthermore, to avoid undesirable substitution, in the same plastic parts, non-halogenated flame retardants (PIN FRs) must have been verified GreenScreen benchmark 2, 3 or 4. TCO will publish a public listing of validated PIN FRs, which will be updated as new GreenScreen verifications are obtained or as new data leads to modification of GreenScreen benchmarks.
TCO public consultation on Generation 8 criteria, open to 31st May 2018 http://tcocertified.com/new-generation-tco-certified/