Chemicals Used in the Electronics Industry

Abstract

The electronics industry comprises thousands of different devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops, televisions, and smart appliances that have become critical to daily life around the world. A single electronic product, the focus of this chapter, contains up to 1000 chemicals. This chemical complexity and sheer volume of chemicals present in newly assembled and discarded electronics add to the challenge of reducing the environmental and public health burdens of these products. Potential human health and environmental risks can occur at any life cycle stage of an electronic product, such as toxic solvent exposure during manufacturing or much later in the lifecycle such as the generation of carcinogenic dioxins from informal e‐waste incineration. Prioritizing the elimination of highly hazardous substances and focusing on increasing recycling rates above the industry's current 20% recycling benchmark are needed to protect public health and the environment. Uniform hazard classification frameworks such as the United Nations' Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), brand‐specific restricted substances lists (RSLs), positive chemical lists including TCO's Approved Substances List, and country‐specific regulations such as the European Commission's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive and China's VOC restrictions are all influencing chemical selection on a global scale. This chapter provides an overview of chemicals used in the electronics industry along with their hazards and toxicity concerns. It surveys regulatory and nonregulatory initiatives in place around the world that promote safer chemical selection and reutilization of chemicals and materials and describes tools and practices that contribute to reduced consumption of chemicals of concern in this industry.