Apple, Dell, HP commit to protect workers from hazardous chemicals

05 August 2021
Pledge includes prioritising the elimination or substitution of priority substances, such as solvents

Electronics giants Apple, Dell and HP Inc have committed to the Towards Zero Exposure programme – an initiative aimed at reducing worker exposure to hazardous chemicals along the electronics supply chain.

The Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN) – which formed in 2016 and comprises the US EPA, major electronics companies, academia, NGOs and other stakeholders – launched the programme on 3 August with the three companies, which are CEPN members, announced as the founding signatories.

The CEPN, which is an organisation set up under US non-profit Green America, said signatories commit to:

• prioritise the elimination or substitution of priority chemicals with safer alternatives and continue to protect workers until that is achieved;
• collect data on the process chemicals used in manufacturing electronic products;
• advance worker engagement and participation as an essential element of a best-in-class safety culture for managing process chemicals;
• reach deeper into the overlapping and complex electronics supply chain to reduce worker exposure to hazardous chemicals; and
• verify and report on activities to ensure progress towards implementing the goals.

It said they also agree to protecting workers within suppliers’ facilities as well as their own, which includes urging their suppliers to join the programme.

The commitments focus on companies’ use of process chemicals, strengthening the culture of worker safety and engagement, reducing worker exposure to hazardous chemicals while substituting safer alternatives within their own manufacturing processes and promoting change throughout their supply chain.

On why only three member companies have signed up to the programme, the CEPN said it “recognised that the choice to become a signatory, publicly promising to make progress in the programme’s broad and robust commitments, takes place within a corporate decision-making process with competing priorities”.

It said it “looks forward to adding more companies from among CEPN members and the broader industry as we proceed on the journey towards zero exposure of workers in the electronics industry to hazardous process chemicals”.

The organisation and the three signatories are encouraging companies to join them and sign up to the commitments. The programme is open to all companies (brands and suppliers) in the electronics supply chain.

Priority chemicals

The CEPN has identified a first round of process chemicals that the companies should prioritise for elimination or substitution in electronics manufacturing.

This targets solvents used in manufacturing cleaning products, which are used in high volumes throughout electronics production and can have a “significant impact on worker health and safety because they are often used for hands-on work”. The substances are:

• 1-bromopropane;
• benzene;
• dichloromethane;
• methanol
• N-hexane;
• N-methyl-pyrrolidone – with an exemption for photoresist stripping applications, for which the CEPN says there is no viable alternative;
• tetrachloroethylene;
• toluene; and
• trichloroethylene.

The CEPN said further rounds of priority chemicals will be added to the programme approximately every one to two years.

The programme sets a culture where all workers are “knowledgeable about potential hazards and actively participate and speak up for their safety and that of their co-workers”, it said.

This will include training, a joint worker-management safety committee and surveys to advance this two-way communication.

“The programme was designed such that workers are consulted, informed and actively participating in protecting their health,” the CEPN said.

For the full article, visit https://chemicalwatch.com/310444/apple-dell-hp-commit-to-protect-workers-from-hazardous-chemicals