Product Stewardship

The Arkema Inc. product stewardship program considers and addresses the health, environmental and safety factors throughout the life cycle of each product. Risk characterization is a key element of this program.

What is Risk?

Risk is the likelihood and severity of adverse effects occurring. Put another way, it is the possibility of loss or injury, whether it relates to people or the environment. Risk consists of two main elements: hazard and exposure. Risk characterization evaluates the hazard and exposure characteristics and information of a chemical.

The goal of our risk characterization process is to categorize our products or product categories with regard to their exposure and hazard potential, and to prioritize products for risk management activities. Characterizing the risks of our products is a shared process at Arkema. We solicit input from manufacturing, marketing, sales, technical, research and development (R&D) and HES personnel.

We strongly support the concept of product risk management, so that we can provide our customers with products that can be managed, transported, used and disposed of safely.

Our Arkema HES Policy emphasizes the following product-related objectives:

• Product Stewardship and Product Safety
  At Arkema, we place safety and the protection of health and environment at the center of our objectives. Product stewardship is conducted throughout a product's life cycle: development, manufacture, handling, distribution, use and disposal.

  Arkema provides customers with information and assistance for the proper use of its products.

• Regulatory Compliance
  At Arkema, we manage our activities to meet the requirements of all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where activities are conducted. 
   
• Product Advocacy
  In a commitment to openness, Arkema endorses an approach of constructive dialogue with the stakeholders and the communities related to its activities.

Accordingly, to monitor our activities, and assess our progress to meet these objectives, we have implemented an HES Management System. Arkema regularly evaluates its internal management systems to ensure the relevance of the actions undertaken, to measure improvements and to define new improvement objectives.

View our Product Stewardship Summaries here.