Product responsibility
We have undertaken to avoid risks for humans and the environment across all phases of the product lifecycle through safe research, manufacturing, storage, logistics, use and disposal.
With regard to the safety of our products, our ambitions exceed the legal requirements in many areas. Examples of this include the creation of safety data sheets even for nonhazardous substances and our roadmap for a sustainable product portfolio. Our “Product Safety Management at LANXESS” guideline stipulates how product responsibility is to be exercised throughout the Group and ensures collaboration between all of the parties involved. The Production, Technology, Safety & Environment (PTSE) Group function ensures that laws and regulations are complied with, resulting obligations and preventive measures are derived and their effective implementation monitored.
We classify and label hazardous products (substances and mixtures) in packaged form in accordance with hazardous substances legislation before they are used or brought to market. We regularly adapt our electronic safety data system to take account of new features in GHS (Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals) legislation in the different countries. We thus ensure that risks for humans and the environment are avoided in transport, storage, use and disposal.
Complying with global chemicals control regulations across the whole value chain is an essential prerequisite for the saleability of our chemicals and chemical products. We go to great effort to ensure comprehensive compliance both for our own products and together with our partners for their products, which are our raw materials, for example. Particularly in the case of consumer applications, it is extremely important to us that our products meet high national and international standards, certificates, and quality seals.
Many plasticizers with phthalates are considered to be extremely hazardous to health. Many of these are severely restricted or prohibited in the EU by REACH or other regulations. The reason: they can endanger procreation and unborn children. US authorities also ban these substances. LANXESS produces only phthalate-free plasticizers. One of these products is Mesamoll. It is used, for example, in water beds, bouncy castles and water balls. One advantage of Mesamoll is that it gels well, and can therefore be processed at lower temperatures, and in a shorter time than other plasticizers.
Materials that we produce in the EU or import into the EU in quantities of more than one metric ton per year are registered, listed and evaluated in accordance with the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation. We conduct workshops for our REACH officers in the business units at least twice a year in order to present new developments, promote understanding of the importance of product responsibility and guarantee legal conduct. The REACH requirements have been continuously updated since 2007, so it is necessary to regularly review and revise the registration dossiers. In this context, we support the voluntary Action Plan of the European Chemical Industry Council CEFIC (Conseil Européen des Fédérations de l’Industrie Chimique) and have undertaken to review and – if necessary – update our REACH registration dossiers by 2026 at the latest.
The safe use of our products, along both our own and the downstream value chains, is another essential part of our product responsibility. Our business units help their customers to use our products safely and in an eco-friendly way by way of training and advice and shed light on the risks associated with use. In our electronic safety data system, we provide our customers with safety data sheets and extended safety data sheets for all substances handled regularly – including intermediates.
LANXESS manufactures chemicals that are used by our customers around the world - also for the production of goods intended for consumer or animal use. It is our responsibility to actively demonstrate the safe use of our products to support the protection of living beings and follow legal requirements, which in some cases may require the use of animal studies. In the “LANXESS Position on Animal Studies”, we set out our approach to this topic.
