PVC problems: EU Commission urged to extend chemical ban to medical packaging

17 Jun 2024 --- International organizations are urging the European Commission (EC) to ban polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in packaging. While current restrictions on the harmful chemical are limited to food packaging, environmental law organization Client Earth stresses the importance of including medical packaging applications in the ban.

A report by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), published in November, confirmed many of the dangers posed by PVC, including endocrine disruption, reproductive impairment, cancer, neurotoxicity, immune system suppression and respiratory irritation.

While ECHA’s report states that 27% of medical applications contain PVC with an average additive content of 57%, its guidelines do not include medical applications.

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), which contributed to a new report published last week, calls for a ban on PVC in all non-essential applications, including packaging. “We seek a comprehensive restriction on the production, use and the placing on the market of PVC, as the entire life cycle of PVC is problematic and poses risks to human health and the environment,” Christine Hermann, EEB’s policy officer for Chemicals, tells Packaging Insights.

Organizations are calling for a PVC ban including more than food packaging applications.Meanwhile, Client Earth urges that medical applications should be further assessed under a realistic worst-case scenario approach, while taking into account a 24-hour exposure benchmark and the maximum amount of chemicals used.

“Our analysis looks at the various components of the evaluation and conclusions and provides complementary information where the assessment failed to be exhaustive. Our in-depth examination of the ECHA report leads to a single conclusion: the EC should adopt a restriction on PVC, in addition to regulating its most dangerous additives,” says Client Earth.

A critical gap?
ECHA’s report identifies the risks associated with consumers’ use of PVC materials using a realistic worst-case scenario approach. The agency finds that chemical additives in PVC items leak little during their normal use.

But Client Earth warns this assessment only quantifies the risks for specific product categories and additives, including food packaging, automotive use and artificial leather, while “neglecting” other prominent use cases such as medical applications.

For example, Client Earth claims that soft PVC medical tubing, which is often used for long periods and generally has a high level of additives, provides a direct route for exposure, especially when used intravenously or as a feeding tube.

“This omission is significant as neonatal units have reported high exposures to phthalates, known endocrine disruptors, in babies exposed to PVC tubing,” it says.

The exclusion of medical devices from the risk assessment is deemed a “critical gap,” given the prolonged and intimate nature of exposure in these applications. Client Earth maintains that ECHA did not take into account all relevant use scenarios in its assessment of PVC during its service life.

Hermann tells us that the ECHA report specifies that alternatives should be available.

“If certain packaging requirements cannot be met by any material other than PVC, a time-limited derogation for that specific use may be considered in a restriction. This is a clear timeline that provides certainty and triggers innovation to move away from PVC quickly,” she asserts.

PVC risksClient Earth claims that soft medical tubing provides a direct route for PVC exposure.
The risks posed by PVC in terms of chemical safety have been on EU lawmakers’ radar for decades, asserts Client Earth. But it is only recently that the EC tasked the ECHA with formally investigating this material and the additives used in it.

The Client Earth report identified several risks posed by PVC resin and substances added to PVC to achieve specific properties.

The environmental law charity flags that ECHA also does not fully consider risks linked to everyday exposure to PVC microplastics and certain additives (mainly phthalates and flame retardants) that can potentially take place in indoor settings.

According to the UK Environmental Agency, most additive emissions are likely to occur during article service life: “Indoor dust studies have identified PVC microplastic in private apartments and houses, offices, hotels, classrooms, hospitals and in indoor markets such as those selling clothing, grocery and home furnishings.”

Client Earth concludes: “The EC recognized in its Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability that group restrictions are the way forward to regulate the most harmful groups of chemicals. Banning only a few additives instead of the broader PVC group would constitute a move away from this approach and solve only part of a wider issue.”

By Natalie Schwertheim

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