20-10-2009 Green Electronics Daily: HP Voluntarily Collecting Data from Supply Chain on 240 Chemicals

Excerpt from the Green Electronics Daily press release:

As market and regulatory trends drive manufactures to eliminate or reduce toxic substances in products, many of the companies with large, complex global supply chains face challenges in getting from suppliers the information about chemicals they need to green their products, a study found. The Green Chemistry &
Commerce Council, a project of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, had ordered studies of how Hewlett Packard, Nike and S.C. Johnson gather chemical information from their supply chains and how they use the data to develop safer and environmentally friendly products.

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Besides getting information from supplies to meet RoHS and REACH requirements, HP gets information on 240 additional chemicals as "voluntary reporting," the study found. The list includes carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxins, persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals and endocrine disruptors that HP determined as possibly used in electronic products, it said. The company is building a database on where these chemicals occur in the supply chain. "This will facilitate future efforts by HP to restrict those chemicals, either because of new regulation or a corporate decision, and to work with suppliers to find safer substitutes," the study said.