Product safety is one of our top priorities. During the product development phase, we investigate the potential adverse impacts of chemical substances. Along the entire value chain of our products – from raw materials to manufacture and commercialization – we provide relevant information on their hazardous properties and how to deal with them. These instructions facilitate the safe handling and use of our products in line with pertinent regulatory requirements. We publish this information primarily on the relevant digital channels. As paper safety data sheets are still common in some countries, we can also provide these upon request through our customer service.
Roles and responsibilities
Our Life Science, Healthcare and Electronics business sectors have organizational structures in place to implement our product safety strategy in line with their respective business requirements and customer needs. This approach includes registering chemicals, classifying hazardous substances and highlighting risks using safety data sheets, labels and digital communication tools.
Our Group standard provides a framework for governing the setup of effective operational processes for product safety, hazard communication and chemical regulatory compliance throughout our business sectors. In addition, the Group Chemicals Regulations Council fosters cross-sectoral alignment of strategic regulatory activities required for existing and emerging chemicals regulations as well as sustainability and identifies potential impacts for our company.
This approach also applies to innovative fields of development such as nanomaterials, which we use with the greatest of care in line with the precautionary principle. Furthermore, our Group-wide Policy for Use and Handling of Nanomaterials provides the necessary guidance on the use of these materials.
Legal requirements and internal guidelines
Our internal standard defines the roles, responsibilities and basic processes required to comply with national and international regulations. In addition, we have also endorsed voluntary commitments of the chemical industry such as the Responsible Care® Global Charter.
Using the Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) for hazard communication enables us to streamline our internal processes and provide consistent, harmonized and high-quality information to our customers.
In 2023, there was one incident of non-compliance with regulations concerning potential health and safety impacts and the labeling of our chemical products. Some information and the REACH registration number was missing on a safety data sheet which resulted in a fine in Italy. In this regard, to the best of our knowledge, there were no negative impacts on human health or the environment.
Safety analysis of our products
Safe and sustainable by design implies that product safety starts during development. Therefore, at an early stage of our product development process, we analyze innovations in terms of their impacts on human health and the environment. We continuously evaluate the intrinsic hazards of both our existing and new products to create relevant product safety information in line with applicable rules.
Product safety information
Chemical product safety is all about protecting human health and the environment from adverse impacts resulting from the use of chemical products throughout their life cycle. To achieve this, we provide relevant information to our customers and the public, which helps to raise awareness of the hazards and build a greater understanding of how to mitigate risks and use the products safely.
To obtain the relevant information on hazard profiles, we employ industry-standard digital tools through which we gather information available on the substances we use.