Protecting the health and well-being of consumers and the world at large is the quality industry’s highest calling. During the past several decades, as the manufacture of electronics and consumer goods has shifted away from North America and Europe, the need to confirm and ensure the safety of those products has greatly increased. How do we contribute to quality assurance when manufacturing is no longer in our back yard? A new organization—one that helps track supplier, manufacturer, and distributor compliance with tough international regulations on hazardous substances—could be just the thing to help you start taking real action for change.
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Hazardous substance process management (HSPM) is a systematic, “cradle-to-grave” approach to this problem. The use within manufactured goods of materials such as mercury, lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, biphenyls, and several others are restricted or outlawed in several nations, due to their harmful effects on humans and the difficulty in disposing of them. Unfortunately, these substances continue to appear in products that reach human hands. All too frequently, those hands belong to children.
The Hazardous Substance-Free (HSF) Mark is the best way for importers and consumers alike to be sure that the products they purchase have been manufactured in compliance with HSPM practices. Manufacturers and suppliers can use the HSF Mark on their products when they have been certified to the IECQ QC 080000 HSPM standard, which is administered by the International Electrotechnical Commission Quality Assessment System (IECQ).
The most recent development in this field is the formation of the HSF Mark Consortium, an international organization dedicated to finding permanent, industry-based solutions to HSPM concerns. Conservatively, there are more than 140 million products produced worldwide; the consortium’s goal is to have all of these products and sellers available to consumers and business buyers. The United States and Taiwan each have representatives on the consortium now, and France, South Korea, China, Singapore, and Thailand are expected to follow during the first quarter of 2011.
“The goal is to give consumers and B2B buyers a prominent voice with their favorite retailer, distributor, and manufacturer,” says Stan Salot, president of the ECC Corp., the authorized U.S. institution to the IECQ, and the driving force behind the HSF Mark Consortium.
The consortium is creating an online database that allows consumers and buyers to see those manufacturers that are compliant with IECQ QC 080000, as well as specifications and regulations such as ENERGY STAR, REACH, and RoHS. Fees paid by manufacturers, retailers, and distributors for listing their information makes the database free to consumers and B-2-B buyers and will enable the consortium to test products for HSF compliance.
“The website will provide a voice to the users of products that will be used to influence standards, regulations, regulators, and government officials worldwide,” says Salot. “The site will collect no personal information from the consumers and buyers, but it will provide a wealth of knowledge about the HSF, safety, and environmental aspects and impacts related to the products they purchase.”
“The website is a public platform for the HSPM manufacturers as well as the users,” says Joe Lee, executive secretary of BSMI/CTECCB in Taiwan. “Manufacturers can provide confirmation of the HSF nature of their products and materials, and users can get information regarding the safety of the products that they buy. Personal well-being and environmental protection can both be supported through the work of the HSF Mark Consortium.”
Personal and environmental safety is everyone’s concern, and the HSF Mark Consortium is taking active steps to eliminate harmful substances from the products that we use (and dispose of) every day. For more information on HSPM in general or the HSF Mark Consortium in particular, including information on how your organization can register to QC 080000, please visit online at www.hsf.us and www.ecccorp.org.
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