BAuA Publishes Information on „Hazardous Products 2017“

The German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) recently published its report on „Hazardous Products 2017“. One of the features of the BAuA’s product safety report, which is published on an annual basis, is a statistical analysis of the alerts released by the European rapid alert system RAPEX. In reference to 2016, the report also contains information on RAPEX alerts released due to infringements of the REACH Regulation for the first time. According to the publication, these alerts were produced for 45 products in 2016, more than two thirds of which fell into the category of „Utensils for home and leisure“. It goes on to explain that nearly all of the products were garments such as women’s shoes or lederhosen with a chromium content that considerably exceeded the threshold value. 20 percent of the products fell into the category of „Toys“ and frequently exceeded the threshold values with regard to their content of substances that pose a risk to health such as nickel or lead.

The online BAuA product safety portal currently lists a total of 1457 „dangerous products in Germany“, 145 of which are hazardous in terms of the REACH Regulation. A total of two of these products are clearly attributed to „PVC“ material, namely flip-flops with an excessive PAH content and a PVC ball containing DEHP. Both of these products were made in China. Other products listed as hazardous in relation to REACH include eight products listed under the keyword „DEHP“, the profiles of which do not go into any more detail about the plastic.