Management of Chemical Substances in Products

Our stance on PVC, our stance on brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and our stance on Lead (Pb) within plasma display panels (PDPs) all highlight Panasonic's outstanding commitment to the Environment. Indeed, our action on Pb in PDPs and our work towards elimination of BFR in notebooks and mobile phones demonstrates that our commitment to Environmental Protection will often go beyond the stringent requirements of even our own Substance Guidelines.

Panasonic is the first company in the world to achieve the elimination of lead (Pb) in Plasma Display Panels (PDPs) used as the central picture component in its Plasma TVs and Plasma Modules. In this specific case, the use of lead in PDPs was exempt from legislation because no alternative technology existed. But Panasonic persevered and found an alternative.

In conventional manufacturing processes for PDPs, lead oxide glass is used as a key component for the dielectric layer, electrodes, seal frit and other structural elements to form the panel. Until now, lead oxide glass was the only viable technology for this, and as such was exempted under the European RoHS Directive.

Nonetheless, Panasonic dedicated staff and resources to identifying an alternative. In 2006 we finalised our transfer to our new Pb-free alternative, and in November that year, we announced that all Panasonic PDP TVs would use only lead-free plasma display panels.

• News release - Panasonic Becomes World's First to Eliminate Lead in Display Panel for All Plasma TVs(Nov,2006)

We have put the following 100% PVC-free models of products^*1 on the market in FY 2010 (as of the end of June,2011).

• *1 Excluding a resin binder containing PVC-vinyl acetate copolymer (ink, etc.). In refering to "PVC-free" here , a main body of each model is covered , and some of the peripheral accessories contain PVC.

Also, although halogenated flame retardants are currently essential to protect consumers and to minimise the risk of flammability in some electronic products, we are investigating ways to replace them wherever possible.

Our Components & Devices business group is already manufacturing halogen-free printed wiring boards for certain applications and markets.

Additionally, we have already begun to produce BFR-free products, where it is viable to do so. The table below provides examples of some of our 100% BFR-free products.

In environmental impact assessment, impacts of hazardous substances which are emitted from components containing highly-concentrated brominated flame retardants in inappropriate treatment for collecting rare metals from disposed products such as burning off the field are concerned. On the other hand, although several materials to substitute brominated flame retardants which are used to prevent from fire accidents are developed, some of them are concerned to potentially have impacts to the environment. Panasonic will discontinue the use of brominated flame retardants in case that substitution has become technologically and social-economically available with ensuring product safety.

Some researchers have suggested that phthalate compounds may have toxicity on reproductivity yet a risk assessment report by a Japanese research institute does not recognize such hazard actively. And phthalates are not currently prohibited under any law that applies to chemical substances used in electronics products. In our assessment of environmental impact, Panasonic couldn’t detect the elution of phthalates from materials and components containing PVC, such as coating of cables used in electrical and electronic products, and impacts to human health tabulated from a detection limit did not reach a level of concern. However, some phthalate compounds are prohibited under the toy directives in EU according to the precautionary principles. Since phthalate is mainly used as softeners in flexible PVC plastic, we are trying to reduce or eliminate it for all products by promoting PVC reduction activities.

Antimony is currently essential to protect consumers and to minimise the risk of flammability in some electronic products by using as the anti-flammability assisting agent, primarily as antimony trioxide because it can enhance BFR's flame-retardant effect.

As explained above, we are trying to create more BFR-free products, and we will continue to reduce an amount of Antimony use with the BFR elimination activities.

Panasonic does not produce desk-top computers, but only notebooks. With regards to mobile phones, Panasonic currently sells mobile phones on the domestic Japanese market only, nowhere else.

PVC-free

Panasonic started to sell entirely PVC-free notebook computers (excluding separate AC cord), in April 2007 in Japan. For mobile phones, all of our mobile phones have been PVC-free (excluding internal wiring in a charger) from FY2005 models onwards.

Furthermore, it is Panasonic's intention to sell only 100% PVC-free notebook computers (including all AC cords etc) as soon as technically possible. We had a plan to achieve this for new computer models entering the Japanese market in 2009 and by the end of 2011 in the rest of the world (assuming there is no detrimental effect on product quality). While we have already successfully introduced models with a PVC-free main body, the development of PVC-free AC cord has been yet to be realized due to a technological issue and it is still under way.

A list of 100% PVC-free products which are currently in markets as of the end of June, 2009 is shown at PVC-free.

BFR-free

With regard to the specific brominated flame retardants, PBB and PBDE (including Deca-BDE), we have eliminated these in our computers and mobile phones since October 2005.

Panasonic will never compromise on consumers' safety, and one aspect of safety relates to the non-flammability of our products. This is why we still have to use brominated flame retardants within our computer and mobiles; because they assure our products are safe.

However, we intend to eliminate all remaining BFRs, just as soon as we have successfully identified alternatives. For mobile phones, we have already eliminated them from the exterior cases of our mobile phones, and we are diligently investigating alternatives for use elsewhere in the product. It is our intention to achieve this in new models by the end of 2011 (assuming there is no detrimental effect on product quality).

In mobile phones, BFRs had been used in flexible substrates and resin packages of reflow components, but Panasonic has been expanding the use of BFR-free components, and is now using BFR-free ones in approx. half of the resin packages when adopting new components.

As a result of this effort, an amount of BFR contained per unit of the representative model has been decreasing as shown below.

• 2007 model:  ca.170mg
• 2008 model:  ca.140mg
• 2009 model:  ca.70mg

Panasonic will increase the use of BFR-free components when adopting a new one in mobile phones while ensuring reliability of them.

Likewise we continue to investigate BFR alternatives for computers. As such, it is Panasonic's intention to eliminate BFR from all new computers by the end of 2011(assuming there is no detrimental effect on product quality).

• TOUGHBOOK Global Site