Since July 22, 2019, the European Union has officially regulated four phthalates in general electrical and electronic equipment.

This article will help you understand the content of phthalates from the aspects of phthalate control requirements, main uses, violation risks, test methods and environmentally friendly alternatives, in order to help enterprises effectively deal with phthalate control.

Phthalates are a general term for a class of compounds that can affect hormones in the human body, especially in children, and may damage the liver, kidneys and reproductive organs, and pose a risk of causing cancer.

It is mainly used as a plastic plasticizer and has the possibility of being present in many products. There are great risks in electrical and electronic products, such as cables, rubber, inks, coatings, adhesives, leather, coatings and other materials, especially in PVC materials.

There are no cases of RoHS phthalate violations, but in addition to RoHS2.0 controlled phthalate substances under the EU system, such substances are also controlled in Annex 17 of the REACH regulation.

Compared with RoHS 2.0, the phthalates controlled by the REACH Restriction Chapter are for children's products, and the types of phthalates are more restricted, and the limits are more stringent. From the perspective of the EU sampling inspection of toy products, the management effect of phthalate still needs to be improved, and the EU RAPEX website frequently reports cases of REACH phthalate violations, with as many as 60 cases of violations from January to May 2019, involving DEHP, DBP, DIBP and DINP four kinds of phthalates, of which DEHP exceeds the standard up to 56 cases, DBP 15 cases, DINP 7 cases, DIBP 4 cases (some products have a variety of substances exceeding the standard), In severe cases, the phthalate content is as high as 43.8%.

After the official implementation of EU RoHS 2.0 for phthalates, phthalates will also become a key risk substance for electronic and electrical products, and manufacturers of electronic and electrical products need to be cautious.

The selection of the test method needs to be carried out not only according to the scope of application of the method, but also in combination with the control requirements of the supply chain. Here are a few common test methods:

The most practical for electrical and electronic products is IEC62321-8:2017, i.e. Determination of Certain Substances in Electrical Products - Part 8: Determination of Specific Phthalates in Polymeric Materials by Mass Spectrometry. It is important to note that phthalates cannot be quickly screened by XRF.

For the testing of products for the use and care of children exported to the EU, the EN14372 can be adopted: 2004 i.e. Safety requirements and tests for children's use and care products Cutlery and feeding tools.

There are also standards in other countries, such as CPSC-CH-C1001-09.4 issued by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a standard operating procedure for the determination of phthalates, which can be used for the determination of phthalates in children's toys and care articles under Section 108 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

With the progress of science and technology, the elimination of backward toxic and harmful plasticizers, research, development and production of non-toxic, inexpensive and environmentally friendly plasticizers is an urgent problem to be solved. At present, the common research objects are epoxy plasticizers (such as epoxy soybean oil, epoxy cottonseed oil, epoxy rice bran oil, epoxy sunflower oil), polyester plasticizers (such as adipic acid, azelaic acid, sebacic acid, glutaric acid and phthalic acid, etc.), citrate (tributyl citrate and acetyl tributyl citrate) and trimelliticate and other series of plasticizers, these plasticizers have the characteristics of good performance and environmental friendliness, which are the key research directions. Enterprises can develop environmentally friendly plasticizers in combination with the performance and other requirements of products.

Yike Testing hereby reminds the majority of electronics companies that all electronic and electrical products (except medical equipment and monitoring equipment) currently need to meet the requirements of the RoHS directive on 10 hazardous substances (products belonging to electronic toys also need to comply with the restriction requirements on phthalates in Annex XVII of the REACH regulation).