As part of our environmentally compatible product design, Siemens complies with guidelines that far exceed minimum legal requirements and strive to avoid the use of critical materials in all of our products.
Siemens Standard SN 36350 "Environmentally Compatible Product Design" applies throughout the company, and Part 2 includes a "List of Declarable Substances (LoDS)". This list contains substances that are restricted in use, due to regional or application-specific regulations, or due to potential health and environmental risks posed by these substances themselves and in the manufacture, use and disposal of products containing them. As far as technologically feasible, Siemens avoids the use of all such critical substances in its products worldwide.
In cases where this is not possible, a stringent substance management policy is followed according to the terms of the Siemens Standard SN 36350.
The substance declaration requirements we follow are also mandatory for our suppliers and are specified in procurement and project contracts. Siemens requires its suppliers to inform the company about the presence of any critical substances in products delivered to Siemens, especially those substances contained in the List of Declarable Substances. If critical substances are present, the supplier is obligated to inform Siemens of this fact. To ensure that suppliers have an efficient method for declaring the materials and substances used in their products, Siemens supports the BOMcheck database that is also used by leading companies throughout the industry, for example Philips, GE, Agfa, Toshiba and Tyco Electronics.
In its role as importer, manufacturer and user of various chemical substances, Siemens must comply with EU Regulation No. 1907/2006 for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).
As part of its comprehensive product responsibility and its long-standing chemicals management program, Siemens ensures that all applicable obligations defined in REACH are fulfilled in time. This applies to the pre-registration of certain selected substances and – if required in the future – the registration of such substances according to defined schedules and deadlines.
Only a few substances of very high concern (SVHC) on the candidate list are of relevance to Siemens (Status: January 2011). These include for example the plasticizers bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), benzylbutylphthalate (BBP) and dibutyl phtalate (DBP), which are generally used in PVC. It is possible that products sold individually (e.g. cables) contain more than 0.1 percent weight by weight of these plasticizers. Specific information is included in the delivery documents supplied for such products.
Some of our products are subject to and comply with Directive 2002/95/EU concerning the “Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)” in electrical and electronic devices. Within the scope of our corporate program Fit4 2010 we have voluntarily begun to avoid the use of substances named in the RoHS directive, and in the production of devices not subject to RoHS we have introduced lead-free soldering processes.
More information on this subject is available under the topic "Product responsibility"
2011-Mar-18 | Author