By Sustainability team
19th May 2010.
15:23
Monthly Archives: May 2010
Brominated Flame Retarants (BFR) and the plastic PVC cause problems in sub standard recycling among other things. Sony Ericsson was first in mobile industry to phase them out. Now many are joining this and different environmental organizations use these examples to push for more stringent regulation.
Have a look at a few clips on Chemsec home page one with yours truly inlcuded.
At Sony Ericsson we have always been proactive to find new solutions to unwanted substances in our products and we have therefore already phased out brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from our products.
During this week there is a meeting in the EU parliament regarding the proposals that have been made for the Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. One of the hot topics have been if further substances should be restricted in electronics in the future, and the discussion has now moved on to whether all BFR as well as PVC should be restricted.
Our concern has always been around the problems they cause in the waste handling process, where they can form highly toxic substances – such as dioxins – when incinerated under poor conditions. This is why we started our phase out from the beginning and also why we think they should be banned.
Today Sony Ericsson published a press release on the revision of the current RoHS directive and is supporting the inclusion of all BFR and PVC as banned substances in the directive. Sony Ericsson has, together with an alliance of companies and public interest organisations been lobbying for a strengthened legislation where these substances should be banned from 2015 in electronics.
The RoHS directive is an EU directive that restricts the use of four heavy metals and two types of brominated flame retardants in electronics. The directive you can find here.
Here at Sony Ericsson, we’ve been waiting some time for the publication of results from a research project called “interphone,” looking into the question around radio wave exposure and some of the more common brain tumours.
The International Journal of Epidemiology now published the biggest ever data analysis from a study of glioma and meningioma; two the most common kinds of brain tumour. The study was the first in a series of combined data analyses of head and neck tumours published as part of the Interphone project.
Never before has a study this large been performed on mobile phone use and health. The main result of Interphone, that mobile phone use is not linked to an increased risk of brain tumours. This includes long-term usage (more than 10 years). The results are consistent with the large body of published research and expert reviews conducted to date.
For “heavy users”, there were some suggestions of an increased risk of glioma; but the researchers point out that this finding is very uncertain. They noted that there is evidence that people diagnosed with a brain tumour over-reported their past mobile phone use.
The Interphone results will now be included in the regular review conducted by independent health authorities, such as the World Health Organisation and other expert groups. On a regular basis authorities assess all published research to judge their consequences in regards to people’s health.
There has already been some media coverage of the study but if you want to find all the facts, I suggest you visit the Interphone information as well as checking out the responses of the mobile manufacturers forum and the GSMA.
To demonstrates that it is technically and economically feasible to replace brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) the environmental organization ChemSec‘s has prepared and published “Electronics without brominated flame retardants and PVC- a Market Overview“. This Market Overview lists over 500 products free from these substances.
Sony Ericsson was leading the way in this transition already the first Sony Ericsson product T68i was free from BFR in in boards, casings and chargers. We are now very pleased to see that many other companies are following and this makes it easier for consumers to make greener choices.
Let’s hope they also follow through on the other substances we have and are very close to phase out such as beryllium, antimony and all organic brominated and chlorinated compounds i.e. not only flame retardants and PVC.
Hi there. As some of you may have noticed in earlier blog post about climate goals, Sony Ericsson’s targets are based on absolute values rather than intensity based. The difference is that intensity targets define a reduction of emissions in relation to some other indicator, for example sales, while an absolute target define a pure level of emission reductions.
There is an ongoing debate about what type of target is to be preferred. An absolute target guarantees a real reduction of a particular quantity of GHGs, is more transparent and easier to evaluate for a third party, but it does not allow comparisons of GHG efficiency and it may reward companies for reducing its emissions even as a result of declining production. On the other hand, an intensity target reflect a company’s GHG performance independent of production output, but does not guarantee that the emissions of GHGs to the atmosphere will actually be reduced.
At Sony Ericsson, we chose to set absolute targets because we don’t think nature cares about how many phones we sell, or how much money we make. Nature cares about how much carbon we emit!
But to make it super clear for everyone, we will also let you know how we’re performing in relation to sales and production. That way, you can have the cake and eat it too. Enjoy!