Product developer
As a designer and developer of chemical products or articles you have great opportunities to prevent risks to humans and the environment by avoiding the use of hazardous substances in your products. PRIO helps you to find substances you should avoid.
Risks with hazardous substances can arise when the product is manufactured, used or when it becomes waste. If you choose to keep one step ahead of the legislation and avoid substances that are about to be restricted or banned, you can create a product that lasts longer over time. It can save both time and money for your business. In addition, the product can more easily be recycled into new chemically safe products.
How can PRIO help me?
The database PRIO gives you easy access to information about
- substances and groups of substances that have dangerous properties
- examples of hazardous substances and groups of substances that can be found in different types of materials
- examples of hazardous substances and groups of substances that can be found in different types of chemical products
- which substance or substances you should prioritise to replace or avoid.
Read more about how to search in PRIO.
How can I use PRIO?
PRIO helps you to avoid hazardous chemicals when designing an article or a chemical product. When using PRIO you can find substances that you should replace or avoid. You also get help to prioritise which substances you should focus on.
If you know which substances your finished product will contain, you can find information about the dangerous properties of the substances by searching in PRIO. Based on the search results, you can then decide which substances you want to replace or avoid. This applies no matter if you develop a chemical product, such as a cleaning agent or a paint, or an article such as a piece of furniture, a mobile phone case or an item of clothing.
Search for substances in PRIO.
Read more about how to search for substances in PRIO.
Read more about your responsibilities according to the chemicals rules in the guidelines for companies on the Swedish Chemicals Agency's website.
All articles consist of different materials, such as plastic, ceramic, wood or textile. The materials in turn contain chemical substances. If you know what materials your product consists of but not what hazardous substances they may contain, you can use the material module in PRIO. Searching for a certain material provides you with examples of dangerous substances that may be present in the material. This way you can find out which substances you should avoid when designing your product.
Search for substances in materials in advanced search in PRIO.
Read more about substances in materials.
PRIO helps you to prioritise the hazardous substances that are most important to replace or avoid. There are two priority levels in the tool. Substances belonging to the group phasing-out substances should be avoided or replaced altogether. In the case of substances that belong to the group priority risk reduction substances you should reduce the risk to humans and the environment as much as possible. You can do this by reviewing how the substance is used and what the exposure looks like.
Read more about PRIO's criteria for phasing-out substances and priority risk reduction substances.
When searching for a substance in the database PRIO, you will find out if the substance is on the Candidate List in the EU chemicals legislation REACH. The list covers substances most of which are not banned in the chemicals regulations at present, but which may require authorisation to be used or may be otherwise restricted within the EU in the future. You will also find out if the substance is a so-called phase-out substance in PRIO. Such a substance has such dangerous properties that it meets the criteria for being able to be entered on the Candidate List and be subject to further regulations in the field of chemicals in the future. Other substances may also be subject to restrictions and prohibitions in the future, if they have a use that includes unacceptable risks to human health or the environment.
Read more about the Candidate List of the EU on the Swedish Chemicals Agency's website (in Swedish only).
Read more about authorisation and restrictions on the Swedish Chemicals Agency's website (in Swedish only).
You can search in the database PRIO for individual substances and groups of substances. You can also search for and retrieve information on a wide variety of substances at the same time. It is also possible to search for different types of materials, such as plastic, ceramics or textiles and get examples of hazardous substances that may be present in the materials.
Read more about searching in PRIO.
How can I use the information found in PRIO?
The search results from PRIO can be saved in an Excel file on your computer. This helps you to communicate in a concrete and clear way about which substances should be replaced or avoided, both internally at your company and with your customers or suppliers.
Read more about substitution of hazardous substances on the Swedish Chemicals Agency's website.