The European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA) has announced the introduction of the EuPIA Charter on Raw Material Selection and Exclusion for Printing Inks and Related Products (“the EuPIA Charter”), replacing a previous “exclusion policy” related to raw materials used in printing inks.
The Charter, which is intended to help protect the health and safety of workers in the ink and printing industries, is a voluntary commitment and applies to the manufacture and supply of all types of printing inks and related products, for use in any application and on any substrate in Europe. A key principle of the Charter is the substitution of substances that pose a health risk.
Within it, threshold and non-threshold substances are defined: the former relating to chemicals with established safe exposure limits; the latter, where chemicals do not have a defined safe level of exposure. For non-threshold substances, substitution is mandatory within a default period of a year. For threshold substances, continued use is allowed, where substitution is not possible and a “thorough” risk assessment demonstrates no risk in the respective application.
The EuPIA said its technical committee will review and reassess such measures biennially. It added that the Charter will not apply retrospectively, meaning that substances already classified a human health hazard under the former Exclusion Policy will not be re-evaluated.
The association also said the EuPIA Charter goes “one step further in ensuring the safe use of chemicals” than existing EC regulations such as the Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation, and the Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals.
“This process demonstrates EuPIA’s ongoing commitment towards worker and user safety,” said EuPIA director Cornelia Tietz.
