BD reports progress on substitution
Healthcare NGO praises medical device manfacturer's actions
Chemical Footprint
In 2016, BD took part in the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP) survey, run by the NGO Clean Production Action (CPA). This tracks companies' progress towards safer chemicals, by measuring the total mass of substances of concern in their products.
Ms Kondracki said BD joined the CFP because it understood that material transparency in products was a priority for its customers and the project "offered a good roadmap of how to improve our performance in this area."
She also said that it was helping the company define a methodology for compiling quantitative measures of performance across its different businesses.
"We will be fully transparent in future sustainability reports about the progress we are making toward the 2020 goals," she added.
In 2016, BD also completed product changes to bring in vitro diagnostic devices (IVDs) into compliance with the EU RoHS Directive. On 22 July 2016 IVDs came within scope of the Directive. This bans from the European market any electrical and electronic equipment that contains more than the permitted level of six hazardous substances – the heavy metals lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, plus two types of brominated flame retardants, PBBs and PBDEs.