23 May 2006 - US mobile
phone company Motorola has backtracked on a promise
to remove toxic chemicals from its products. While
competitors like Sony Ericsson and Nokia are living
up to their commitments to remove toxic chemicals,
Motorola is not answering the call to clean up.
Over the last couple of years
we have been pressuring leading companies to remove
the most toxic chemicals from their products.
With companies as diverse as H&M, Puma, Adidas,
Hewlett Packard and Nokia, we have scored some
notable successes.
Many chemicals in everyday products
are now common environmental pollutants. Almost
everyone has dozens of man-made chemicals in their
body, and the effects of these chemical cocktails
on our health are largely unknown.
Back in October 2005 we congratulated
Motorola for joining the good guys when they made
toxic clean-up promises. In a July 2005 letter,
Motorola committed to phase out all toxic brominated
flame retardants (BFRs) in its mobile phones by
mid 2007 and to provide a phase out date for the
hazardous plastic PVC by March 2006. But after
follow-up talks on their progress we received
a letter on 15 May 2006 stating that Motorola
cannot phase out BFRs and PVC from their products.
Motorola's letter makes several
excuses for not keeping their promise. But other
mobile phone companies have shown us progress
rather than excuses. Sony Ericsson has already
removed BFRs from all their models except one.
Nokia has already removed PVC in all new models
and is on target to remove BFRs by the end of
2006.
For the other companies that
made commitments in 2004 and 2005 it is time to
put words in to action. Both LG electronics and
Samsung are currently behind on their promises
but still working towards elimination of these
toxic chemicals. Both companies have large product
ranges from cameras to refrigerators that can
make elimination from the whole product range
more complex. Motorola makes mainly mobile phones
so it doesn't even have the excuse of a diverse
product range.
Check out how the top electronics
companies compare on eliminating toxic chemicals
and consider who you want to get your money next
time you go shopping for electronics.
