Making Your Products Safe for Your Health & Environment

In a previous blog post, we discussed materials declarations and some of the initiatives we are taking to ensure compliance with European Union (EU) and US regulations. One of those initiatives at Whitney Blake is the compilation of a Materials Declaration List.

The Materials Declaration List

The EU’s Restriction of Hazardous Materials (RoHS), the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorizations, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), and US regulations like Proposition 65 in California have identified close to 1000 chemical substances that might affect the environment and human health. The lists overlap somewhat. However, Michael Garcia, Engineering Manager at Whitney Blake, admits “With that level of complexity, keeping track is challenging.”

That is why Michael and his team have constructed the Materials Declaration List, a data base that quickly identifies compliant and noncompliant materials.

Compliance Made Easy

Compliance is based on the weight percent of material in a product—the entire product. Therefore, if two products use the same chemicals, one might be compliant because the total chemical content is below the weight percent target and the other might be noncompliant because the total chemical content is above.

Whitney Blake has always examined the bill of materials for a product to determine if it is compliant for that customer. Part of the value of the Materials Declaration List is that it streamlines the process of determining which materials in what amounts would affect compliance.

Garcia states, “We can test a commercial product to see if a change is warranted. If a customer redesigns the product, we might have to ask them to change the bill of materials that they provided to us to maintain compliance. We also actively try to get compliant substitutes that still deliver on performance and quality.”

What the Future Looks Like

In addition to determining compliance, Whitney Blake uses the Materials Declaration List to track of customer preferences and vendor certifications, ensuring certifications are available and up to date.

At Whitney Blake, we are committed to regulatory compliance and to helping our customers maintain compliance while meeting or exceeding performance, quality, and cost objectives. Please contact Whitney Blake today to find out more.