International conference on Alternatives to Classified Phthalates in PVC Medical Devices
26/02/2014
Alternatives to classified phthalates discussed in Copenhagen
27/03/2014
The PVCMed Alliance is pleased to have contributed to the report “Alternatives to classified phthalates in medical devices” which outlines the benefits of plasticised PVC for medical applications
27 March 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency, the Danish Health and Medicines Authority and the PVC Information Council Denmark (a PVCMed Alliance partner) are coming together today to present the results of the report ”Alternatives to classified phthalates in medical devices”.
The Danish Environmental and Health authorities are presenting the conclusions of this report which is based on the evaluation of ten existing PVC plasticisers.
The PVCMed Alliance partners provided data on these plasticisers to the Danish authorities. “Many different plasticisers have been developed and are increasingly being used in a wide array of medical applications allowing medical professionals to benefit from PVC’s unique properties for patient comfort, economic affordability and hospital hygiene. We encourage the value chain to commit to continuous improvement of safety in order to develop innovative products for all PVC healthcare applications”, stresses Brigitte Dero, PVCMed Alliance spokesperson.
Furthermore, the report outlines the need for certain types of medical devices to be “extremely soft and flexible”and “be able to offer the most efficient and qualitative treatment of patients”. PVC-based healthcare applications have a fundamental role in ensuring this quality of healthcare thanks to PVC’s technical properties including flexibility and resilience, softness, sterilisability, chemical stability, biocompatibility, clarity and transparency, durability and dependability, resistance to chemical stress cracking, low cost, and many others.
The conference will convey the views of environmental and health authorities, medical device companies, medical professionals, NGOs and hospital facility managers on the latest developments on the use of plasticised PVC in medical devices. “PVCMed believes this is a crucial discussion in order to continue ensuring patient safety and quality healthcare, even more so at a time of on-going review of the EU medical devices legislation and the SCENIHR (Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks) scientific opinion on the use of phthalates in medical devices” explains Ole Grøndahl Hansen, Director of the PVC Information Council Denmark and project manager for the PVCMed Alliance.
For more information, please contact: Ole Grøndahl Hansen – PVCMed Alliance – info@pvcmed.org
