Migration of Chemical Additives from Plastic Products a Literature Review
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s REPORT M-1906 | 2020 Migration of chemical additives from plastic products A literature review COLOPHON Executive institution Norwegian Environment Agency Project manager for the contractor Contact person in the Norwegian Environment Agency Heidi Morka Marianne van der Hagen M-no Year Pages Contract number 1906 2020 18 [Contract number] Publisher The project is funded by Norwegian Environment Agency Norwegian Environment Agency Author(s) Clare Andvik Title – Norwegian and English Migrasjon av tilsetningsstoffer fra plastprodukter: En vitenskapelig gjennomgang av litteratur Migration of chemical additives from plastic products: A literature review Summary – sammendrag Plastic polymers are often incorporated with various “additives”, which have the potential to migrate from plastic products and cause harm to both humans and the environment. This literature review gives an overview of the migration of chemical additives from plastic products used in building/construction materials, electronics, and furnishings/upholstery. Our scope was products used in the home, to reflect the possible exposure to consumers within the product lifetime. We found that within building/construction materials, the release of phthalates from plastic flooring is commonly measured, with DEHP having the highest migration rate and migration rates increasing with temperature. Within electronics, brominated flame retardants are often measured, but it is challenging to compare studies when differing measurement units are utilised. TCPP was commonly measured as emitted from furnishings/upholstery. These results will be used to commission an experiment to measure the release of chemical additives from plastic, with the aim of regulating chemical additives with high migration rates under REACH/CLP. 4 emneord 4 subject words Tilsetningsstoffer; plast; migrasjon; utslipp Chemical additives; plastic; migration; release Front page photo Kjersti Moxness/Miljødirektoratet Abbreviations BBP butyl benzyl phthalate BDP bisphenolA-bis-biphenylphosphate BDE209 decabromodiphenyl ether BfR German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) CLP Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of substances and mixtures DBP dibutyl phthalate DEHA di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate DEHP di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate DINCH diisononyl cyclohexane-1,2- dicarboxylate DINP diisononyl phthalate DnBP di-n-butyl phthalate ECHA European Chemicals Agency EE products Electric and electronic products EHDPP 2-Ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate HBCD hexabromocyclododecane OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OPE Organophosphate ester PLASI Plastic additives initiative PVC flooring Poly vinyl chloride flooring REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals RDP resorcinol-bis-biphenylphosphate SVOC Semi-volatile organic compounds TBEB/TBOEP tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate TBP tributylphosphate TCEP tri(2- chloroethyl) phosphate TCIPP tris(chloropropyl)phosphate TCP tricrecylphosphate ΣTCPPs Sum of tris (2-chloro-isopropyl)phosphate isomers TDCIPP tris(1,3-dichloroisopropyl) phosphate TNBP tri-n-butyl phosphate TPP/TPhP triphenylphosphate TVOCs Total volatile organic compounds Migration of chemical additives from plastic products | M-1906 Content 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Chemical additives in plastic .................................................................... 1 1.2 Plastic additives initiative: PLASI ............................................................... 1 1.3 Norwegian project ................................................................................ 2 2. Methods ................................................................................................... 3 3. Results and discussion .................................................................................. 4 3.1 Building/construction materials ................................................................ 4 3.2 Electronics ......................................................................................... 7 3.3 Furnishings and upholstery ..................................................................... 11 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 13 4.1 Knowledge gaps .................................................................................. 13 4.2 The next steps .................................................................................... 14 5. References .............................................................................................. 15 Migration of chemical additives from plastic products | M-1906 1. Introduction 1.1 Chemical additives in plastic Plastic polymers are widely used worldwide, including in consumer products, synthetic fibres, foams, coatings, adhesives and sealants, all of which have numerous applications (Hahladakis et al., 2018). The basic plastic polymer is often incorporated with various “additives”, which are chemical compounds added to improve the performance, functionality, appearance and/or aging quality of the polymer. Examples include flame retardants to reduce flammability, plasticisers to improve flexibility, stretchability and durability as well as antioxidants to delay the overall oxidative degradation of plastic if/when exposed to UV light (Hahladakis et al., 2018). Many of these chemical additives have the potential to migrate from plastic products into the air, water and soil, and can cause harm to both humans and the environment. For example, cocktails of plastic-derived chemical additives have been shown to cause harm in zebra fish (Boyle et al., 2020), aquatic organisms (Capolupo et al., 2019), flame retardants from ingested plastic products can leach in avian digestive fluids (Guo et al., 2019), and many of the chemicals are harmful to humans (Lucattini et al., 2018). Identifying the magnitude and type of such emissions is a complex task, because it depends on many factors. In general, the fate of the polymer product, any substances released, any degradation process products and their persistence and bioaccumulation potential will affect the exposure to humans and the environment, both in the short and in the long term (Hahladakis et al., 2018). As such, migration of plastic additives has been a topic for many organisations such as United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2019), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA, PLASI project) and most recently a report on toxic additives in plastic and the circular economy coordinated by the Barcelona-based Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC) in collaboration with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) (SCP/RAP, 2020). The European Commission furthermore have a European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy which includes controlling the release and exposure to humans and the environment of toxic chemical additives. 1.2 Plastic additives initiative: PLASI In late 2016, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), along with 21 industry sector organisations, launched the plastic additives initiative (PLASI): a joint project to characterise the uses of plastic additives and the extent to which the additives may be released from plastic products. One of the objectives of the project was to help authorities (de)prioritise certain substances (ECHA, 2019, 2020). According to ECHA, plastic additives can be roughly divided into four groups: 1) functional additives (e.g. stabilisers, flame retardants and plasticisers), 2) colourants, 3) fillers and 4) reinforcements. The PLASI initiative addressed two of the four groups, functional additives and colourants (pigments), i.e. plastic additives with the following functions: Antioxidants, antistatics, flame retardants, nucleating agents, 1 Migration of chemical additives from plastic products | M-1906 plasticisers, pigments, heat stabilisers, UV stabilisers, other stabilisers, and additives with other functions. The two-year project yielded a list of 418 substances that were confirmed by industry or registrants to be used as plastic additives in the EU. This is less than the ~10000 substances found to be associated with possible uses in plastics identified by ETH Zurich (Wiesinger et al., 2020). However, the ECHA plastic additives database includes only those chemicals registered with tonnages more than 100 tonnes per year under REACH. The substances in ECHA's list was identified as present in plastic based on non-confidential data and confirmed by the industry. The substance list furthermore does not include other additive types such as fillers, blowing agents or lubricants, monomers, polymers or transformation and degradation products. In addition to these 418 substances, additional possible plastic additives were identified which are also used in excess of 100 tonnes per year, but for which the status concerning their use as plastic additives is uncertain and that were identified (partly) on non- public data. Nearly 60% of the 418 identified substances are not under regulatory scrutiny under REACH or CLP so far (ECHA, 2019, 2020). The PLASI project developed a method to compare the relative release potential of the various substances, i.e. the relationship between the additives in their ability to be released (migrate) from the plastic. This was determined by the physiochemical properties of the additives, i.e. chemical structure, molecular