'Red Lights' and 'Issues of Concern'

There are areas where there are significant community concerns (amongst members of the public, scientists, academics, industry or government) regarding the environmental sustainability or human health impacts of products or practices. Such issues include acute, bioaccumulative and persistent toxins and biodiversity-threatening processes. In many instances scientific opinion is not uniform, and research results are not unanimous.

So ecospecifier has developed a unique, world first, approach to classifying the impacts of products. For each ECG listing, the sub-components of each product are determined down to fractions less than 0.5% and categorised by their unique EU prescribed Risk and Safety Phrases (R-Phrase and S-Phrases). These are sub-divided in 4 Categories and Permissable Levels ascribed to each level.

If a product contains any of the following, it will require either an automatic Issue of Concern, a Red Light Comment or, as the strongest course of action, a Red Light Exclusion from being listed on ecospecifier:

1.    Timber material from a non-FSC certified source, or involves large-scale ecosystem damage, it  requires an Issue of Concern. Note that both Forest Management (FM) and Chain-of-Custody (CoC) certification are required.

2.    If product contains significant non-FSC certified rainforest or high conservation value remnant ecosystem timber content, this warrants a Red Light comment or possibly even a Red Light Exclusion.

3.    If the manufacture/use of a product involves significant environmentally damaging processes or emissions, this warrants a Red Light comment or possibly even a Red Light Exclusion.

4.  Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), as at the Stockholm Convention. These include:

-    Aldrin
-    Chlordane
-    DDT
-    Diedrin
-    Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Furans
-    Endrin
-    Hexachlorobenzene
-    Heptachlor
-    Mirex
-    Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
-    Toxaphene

All of the above chemicals are considered Level 0 chemicals. If any of the above chemicals exist in a product, that product cannot be listed on ecospecifier, i.e. Red Light Exclusion

5.  Chemical/s in EU Hazardous Substances Classification System (as taken from the recognized EU Directive 2001/59/EC). The R and S Phrases of the particular chemical are researched to determine what action, if any, needs to be taken. Ecospecifier has broken these R and S Phrases down into Level 1, 2 and 3 chemicals, according to their potentially adverse health and environmental effects (see “Ecospecifier R and S Phrase Categorisation” for full list and detail).

Specific thresholds have been set for each level of chemical, in order to determine what action should be taken with a particular product

6.    RoHS. The following are considered hazardous substances under the European RoHS prohibited substances in electronic goods regulations:

-    Lead
-    Cadmium
-    Mercury
-    Hexavalent Chromium
-    Polybrominated biphenyl (PBB)
-    Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)

All of the above are Level 1 chemicals and products containing these chemicals at anything other than extremely low levels would be excluded.

7.     Carcinogens. Any chemicals classified by the UN International Agency on Research into Cancer (IARC):

Group 1	Carcinogenic to humans	Level 1
Group 2A	Probably carcinogenic to humans	Level 1
Group 2B	Possibly carcinogenic to humans	Level 2
Group 3	Not Classifiable	Level 2
Group 4	Probably not carcinogenic	Level 3

8. Any product that increases the ionizing radiation levels of interior environments more than 10% above background levels is Category 0, Exclusion.                                                            

A Risk Assessment is then undertaken to determine whether the effect is considered 'imminent', 'likely', or 'unlikely'.

With regard to these issues, where ecospecifier considers there is a strong basis for caution or concern, a precautionary approach is taken.

Products or chemicals of concern within this framework, will generally not be knowingly included unless:

• There is no effective alternative available in the country market and a particular product offers significant advantages to comparable competing products (e.g. dramatically reduced heavy-metal use in fabric dyes)
• The product has outstanding paradigm-shifting attribute(s) to it (e.g. a commitment to product take-back at end of life for a carpet)
• A product’s potential toxicity is mitigated substantially in some way (e.g. by the chemical form in which it is used)
• The concentration or quantity is of a sufficiently low level that it is considered not significant in the context of international best practice
• A product may have exemplary features in one category but have 'Red Light' issues also (e.g. a 5 star energy efficient timber window made from timber from 'managed' remnant native forests).