This week, Sweden-based International Chemical Secretariat, ChemSec, announced the addition of 60 new chemicals to their Substitute-It-Now (SIN) List of problematic chemicals. The first major update to this list in five years includes the addition of carbon nanotubes and perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS), among other recently classified CMR* and PBT* chemicals. The addition of carbon nanotubes is the first nanomaterial to make the SIN List.
According to Anne-Sofie Bäckar, Executive Director at ChemSec, “We know that many influential brands and standards use the SIN List and incorporate its compounds in their chemicals management strategies. They will start to investigate if these new chemicals are present in their processes and products and look into how to substitute them. That will influence many more companies in their respective supply chains.”
Given this week’s announcement, consumer products companies would be well advised to revisit some important questions:
- Are any SIN List chemicals in your supply chain?
- How do you ensure proper chemicals management and transparency from your suppliers, while still protecting supplier confidential formulation information?
- When you find a chemical of concern, how do you and your suppliers seek safer alternatives?
The SIN List comprises over 900 chemicals listed by Chemical Abstract Service Registry Number (CAS RN®) with over 12,000 identified as having “SINimilarity”. Over the years, many SIN List chemicals have eventually found their way to regulatory and industry restricted substances lists (see REACH SVHCs, ZDHC MRSL, etc.).
With SciveraLENS® Rapid Screen you can quickly and easily monitor the SIN List, including the most recent chemical additions. And with Scivera’s expanded list you can be notified of and avoid over 17,000 chemicals our team has identified on the list and within the chemical groups.
Now for the best part: Are you ready to look for alternatives to SIN List chemicals? You can leverage the SciveraLENS Chemical Hazard Assessment (CHA) Knowledge Base and thousands of verified CHAs within functional use groups to search for chemicals with similar use and compare all for safer alternatives.
Contact Scivera to see how SciveraLENS can help you avoid SIN List and other chemicals of concern and find safer alternatives.
*CMR is an abbreviation for a group of very important human health characteristics used by toxicologists to assess chemicals for Carcinogenicity the potential to cause cancer, Mutagenicity, the potential to cause changes in human genetic information, and Reproductive/Developmental Toxicity, the potential for a chemical to harm the reproductive system or a developing organism. Similarly, PBT is an abbreviation for another group of very important toxicological characteristics for assessing environmental impact of a chemical. Persistence indicates if a chemical can biodegrade in the environment. Bioaccumulation measures a chemical’s potential to accumulate in the tissue of humans or other animals. Toxicity of a chemical for aquatic organisms is the third critical environmental characteristic used as part of a Chemical Hazard Assessment.
Link to the new SIN List chemicals: https://sinlist.chemsec.org/the-new-sin-list-chemicals/
Link to the ChemSec press release and Q&A: https://chemsec.org/new-chemicals-on-the-sin-list-challenge-the-global-supply-chain/
