pinfa comments on PlastChem list

pinfa has identified less than 50 flame retardants in the list of 389 alleged FRs in the database published by PlastChem (see pinfa Newsletter n. 159). The database lists 16 325 chemicals which are “related to plastics”, out of which 389 are tagged with the function “flame retardant”. pinfa suggests that the identification of many chemicals as FRs may be because they are indicated in patents or cited, synthetised or tested as such in scientific literature, whereas in reality they have never been developed industrially nor placed on the market.

‘PlastChem’ is a Norwegian Research Council project “State-of-the-art review on hazardous substances in plastics” carried out by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, EAWAG: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, the Food Packaging Forum Foundation, Switzerland. https://plastchem-project.org/