Case Study on Printed Matter in Denmark

The implementation of the EU REACH regulation will most probably promote substitution within sectors handling a lot of different chemicals such as the printing industry. With the aim of being at the cutting edge of this development, the Danish printing industry started up a substitution project in 2006.

A major part of the work has been mapping the presence of chemicals, which are the potential candidates for substitution (e.g., PBT, CMR, vPvB, EDS). The mapping comprises a combination of a literature study and an investigation of the actual (2007) presence of candidate substances at 15 Danish printing houses including the examination of almost 900 MSDSs (i.e., products).

Furthermore, a focused search in the Danish Product Register has been included. More than 200 of the mapped substances are candidates for substitution according to Danish legislation (List of Undesirable Substances) and about 60 of these substances fulfill one or more of the criteria (e.g., CMR, EDS) for the REACH Annex XIV candidate list (Authorisation List).

This case study presents the results of the mapping of chemical substitution candidates some of which may be relevant regarding accumulation of additives/impurities in globally recycled paper.