Chemical safety testing
Full Compliance with Chemical and Mechanical Safety Requirements
DEKRA offers a wide range of chemical testing services across a number of different markets, including automotive, industrial and medical, to ensure full compliance with all international chemical safety requirements.
The benefits of Chemical Testing
Verify full compliance with all international chemical safety requirements
Minimizes the potential exposure of users to any chemical safety risks
Verifies that your products meet all national and international standards
About Chemical Safety Testing
DEKRA offers a wide range of chemical testing services across a number of different markets, with our chemical testing specialists ensuring that all users of our customers products are not exposed to any chemical safety risks.
Chemicals in products may be naturally present in raw materials or may have been added to create specific characteristics. The use of different chemicals in product manufacturing is a heavily regulated area. DEKRA’s chemical testing experts test the chemical aspects of a product and any applicable conditions under which these could pose a threat to users.
Chemical tests are also necessary to identify different chemical components within different materials, helping to identify any potential risks or hazardous substances within products, and also resistance to chemical agents. Tests are also used to help manufacturers accurately list all the components used to manufacture products, in order for the vendor to accurately declare this in any marketing material about the product.
Why DEKRA
We provide accredited testing services to enable you to demonstrate that your products do not contain unsafe levels of chemicals or any restricted substances.
Our experts are ready to explain the specifics of your target market, enabling you to understand what is required to avoid unnecessary risks.
Through our global network of laboratories, we offer safety testing and performance testing services focused on many different aspects of chemical substances.
About our chemical safety tests
Do you want to find out which substances are regulated? And whether they are present in your products? Which mechanical tests are necessary, and how often? Which documents you need from your suppliers and whether they meet legal requirements? At DEKRA, we ensure that you are aware of the specific legal requirements.
We test among others:
- Furniture
- Ladders
- Shelves
- Steps
- Scaffolds
- Lifting devices
- Car accessories
- Floor-borne vehicles
- Gymnastic equipment/playground devices
- Toys
- Childcare products
In Europe, the restriction of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment is dictated by the RoHS directive, which is aimed at reducing the negative environmental impact of products and minimizing their toxicity. The directive restricts the use of heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium), brominated flame retardants (PBBs and PBDEs) and phthalates. It is also closely related to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, which concerns disposal of such devices.
In addition to RoHS, it is necessary for manufacturers and importers bringing products containing certain chemicals onto the EU market to provide proper documentation about those substances. The REACH regulation imposes strict restrictions on and obligations for the registration of hazardous chemicals. Moreover, particularly hazardous chemicals require official authorization.
On top of that, equipment and materials intended to come into contact with food must be subject to additional tests. So-called food contact testing ensures the existing chemicals in food contact materials will not migrate into the food in a way that could endanger human health, change the composition of the food, or cause its taste and odor to deteriorate. Different regulations exist for different countries.