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Environment Daily

DENMARK, 1 October  2001  -- Denmark's environment ministry has called for a voluntary ban by manufacturers, importers and retailers of all electronics products containing brominated flame retardants. Noting that the EU is to ban one such retardant, penta-BDE, from 2003, but that others will not be outlawed until as late as 2008, Steen Gade, head of the environmental protection agency (EPA), said in a statement that the government wanted "to act as quickly as possible and not just sit back and wait for legislation to fall into place". Earlier this year, the government published an action plan targeting what it called the most "troublesome" substances, initially PBBs and PBDEs (ED 28/03/01 http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=a- article&ref=9613). While stressing that this aspect of the plan was strictly voluntary, Mr Gade said he wanted it to be seen as "a powerful appeal to all parties not to ignore the risk posed by the long-term effects of the substances on environment and health A two-month information campaign has been launched with the aim of ensuring that all concerned, including consumers, are in a position to know which products contain brominated flame retardants and what alternatives are available. Special web pages have also been created

Follow-up: Danish EPA http://www.mst.dk/, tel: +45 32 66 01 00, a press release http://www.mst.dk/default.asp?Sub=/presse/11400000.htm, and information pages http://www.mst.dk/default.asp?Sub=http://www.mst.dk/kemi/02- 2150000.ht