A focus on product safety from product development to recycling

Taking health and safety issues into account is important not only during the manufacturing of stainless steel, but also when Outokumpu customers are processing the material further, when stainless steel products are being used, and when it is returned for re-melting.

As stainless steel is an inert material and non-reactive when employed correctly, its potential impacts on people's health and safety are very limited. This is why stainless steel is so widely used in both medical appliances and in equipment used in the food processing industry. Outokumpu manufactures stainless steel grades that are standardised and proven safe for their recommended uses. All Outokumpu's main production sites are certified according to the ISO 9001 quality standard to ensure that all products produced comply with the specified requirements. All our service centres have ISO 9 001 quality sertificate and about half of them also ISO 14 001 environmental management system.

Careful testing and compliance to ensure safety

When new stainless steel grades are developed they are carefully tested for safety. One recent example is Outokumpu's new LDX duplex grade. In addition to internal test programmes the steel grade was tested in contact with water and acetic acid by an external laboratory and approved according to the Italian requirements for materials in contact with food. In the US LDX 2101 has been tested and approved for incorporation in the NSF-ANSI 61 standard for components in contact with drinking water and the same grade has also received a food equipment acceptance certificate according to the 3A sanitary standard.

Outokumpu takes account of specific end-use concerns. Outokumpu does not use metal compounds such as lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium in its manufacturing process, as there are restrictions for their use in the electronic and automotive industries.

The Group works actively with REACH to ensure that all substances used and produced are registered correctly and on time. Products sold by Outokumpu do not contain any SVHC (Substances of Very High Concern) as defined by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

Most stainless steels contain nickel that has been classified as harmful in the EU. However, since stainless steel is inert there is no risk to either human beings or environment from normal use of stainless steel products. This has been demonstrated both in laboratory studies and through a long history of use. Unfortunately, the fact that steel is a very different material from its components is sometimes not well understood by regulators. For example, in an effort to simplify the EU Ecolabel Directive, all substances classified as harmful were excluded, regardless of real risk to man or environment. Since nickel is banned from receiving the Ecolabel, it automatically means that stainless steel products cannot receive the label either, although stainless steel has very different properties compared to nickel.