Product Environmental and Health Safety: A New Discipline

Webinar Overview

The concept of environment and human health is a product safety issue; one for which the electronics industry (and others) currently has no rules besides those randomly provided by governments via regulation and customers or non-governmental organizations via market requirements.

We have design rules and constraints – based on industry standards – for other safety issues such as electrical safety, mechanical safety, and flammability safety which ensure the safety in these areas for users of the products. But we have a gap: toxic chemicals continue to be incorporated into products that expose users and the environment, creating health and pollution problems around the world.

We have no rules or constraints that prevent the incorporation of toxic, yet unregulated, chemical substances in manufactured goods (and there are plenty). How we identify, define and implement the rules and guidelines necessary to produce product design constraints is a challenge that requires a new field, expertise that the industry does not have enough of (green chemists and toxicologists), focus and funding.

The webinar covers:

• What is the problem? Why do finished goods manufacturers keep getting regulated in environmental and health-related areas?
• Case studies – lead in solder & flame retardants in enclosures
• The article manufacturer’s challenge
• Recommendations

Guest Presenter

Mike Kirschner
Consultant, Design Chain Associates (DCA)

Mike Kirschner is a product environmental compliance and performance expert who provides advice and expertise to manufacturers in a variety of industries.

His primary areas of focus include EU RoHS, the impact of EU’s REACH regulation on article manufacturers, California’s Safer Consumer Products regulation, and performance standards like IEEE-1680.x for electronics.