Product Stewardship at The Hygenic Corporation

10-31-2016

The Hygenic Corporation, like many other companies, has learned that when describing a product, the word “quality” means so much more than just the physical and visual characteristics of the product itself. In today’s world, products not only have to meet the functional, dimensional and aesthetic requirements of the user but they also have to meet environmental health and safety concerns. Often those concerns are unstated but, nonetheless, are expected by the customer and are in the best interest of the general population.

At The Hygenic Corporation we have a wide array of products; we manufacture elastomers which are used in medical applications, dental applications, sports and recreation, welding, military applications and a myriad of other niche markets. That diversity has created a technical staff with a deep understanding of elastomers and custom compounding to produce products that meet the diverse needs of all of our customers. That same diversity also created a problem —complying with several different industrial regulations that governed the variety of industries we designed solutions for. In addition to complying, we needed to be knowledgeable so we could answer any questions about regulations from our customers.

Governments worldwide are setting new and ever more stringent regulations regarding the use of certain chemicals in everyday products. It can be a daunting task to stay ahead of these changes, but we believe keeping up is in our best interest and in the best interest of our customers and the world as a whole. We want our products to be synonymous with quality and trusted by those who use them.

Over the last few years it became increasingly difficult to keep up with all of these changes across the many industries and we needed to figure out how to best handle the load. In order to meet this growing list of requirements and maintain compliance, we needed Product Stewardship and decided to create a position whose sole focus would be product stewardship at The Hygenic Corporation.

Since then, Product Stewardship has become an integral part of our process for creating new products and reviewing all of the products already in our portfolio. We are acutely aware of our responsibilities in today’s world to provide products which are safe for our customers and for the environment. All of our compound ingredients are reviewed for any possible impact on safety and the environment prior to their approval. We are proud to say that none of our products have ingredients considered to be at unsafe levels.

The following is a short list of the regulating bodies we monitor and comply with: The Conflict Minerals provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known by its original name of Proposition 65,Europe’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) which regulates chemicals going into Europe and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, or RoHS.

These regulations and many others exist for the sole purpose of keeping us all safe. We agree with that mission and strive to ensure our products are safe and environmentally friendly. If you have any questions or comments about Product Stewardship you can contact our EHS Product Stewardship Specialist, Bob Schember, via email ([email protected]).

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