Environmental Sciences Europe volume 30 , Article number: 29 Cite this article. Metrics details. This communication tool is designed to stimulate suppliers to substitute such ingredients. While detailed comments by some survey participants showed a high level of understanding of the issue, many respondents were not sure what the SVHC information means for their daily life. They declared that they would inform themselves, reduce the use of the article with SVHCs, circulate this information, or throw such an article into the garbage.
The preferred suggestions were a ban of SVHCs, easily understandable information on the packaging, full ingredient declaration on the articles, or no need to inquire for every single item, while smartphone applications for SVHC requests were the least popular suggestion in all age groups. This allowed developing recommendations for improving the effectiveness of this communication instrument on the way to the gradual elimination of SVHCs in consumer articles.
According to Art. Information shall be provided within a time period of 45 days free of charge. SVHCs are chemicals which are carcinogenic, mutagenic, and toxic for reproduction or very critical for the environment [because they are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic PBT or very persistent and very bioaccumulative vPvB ] or which cause concern for other reasons such as endocrine disruptors [ 1 ] Art.
These substances are candidates for inclusion in Annex XIV, which is the list of substances subject to authorization Art. Authorization means that a manufacturer, importer, or downstream user shall not place a substance on the market, if that substance is included in Annex XIV, unless the special use has been authorized according to the provisions laid down in Art.
It should increase transparency and awareness on SVHCs in consumer articles, help interested consumers to make informed purchasing decisions, and to ensure a safe use of articles, and it should contribute to a reduced discharge of SVHCs into the environment and support the efforts of producers to substitute SVHCs by less harmful chemicals or non-chemical solutions.
