Restricted Substances Data Module
The Restricted Substances data module is a regularly updated information resource that helps you to understand your exposure to the legislation and standards that may restrict substances used in manufacturing your products.
The data module is designed to be used as part of the GRANTA MI:Restricted Substances package, allowing you to apply the data to assess and manage restricted substances risk.
Overview of the data module
The data module consists of two data sets:
- Over 6,000 records, each describing a specific restricted substance.
- The details of over 60 pieces of national and international legislation, regulations, and industry standards that regulate the use of such substances. New legislation is continually added and existing legislation is monitored and updated.
The data is compiled and maintained by Granta Design, guided by the EMIT Consortium.
Connecting articles, materials, substances, and legislation
A vital feature is the linking between records. Restricted substances are linked to legislation that impacts them; legislation records are linked to substances that they affect. Links also exist between the Restricted Substances data module and an accompanying Coatings data module, supporting strategic decision making on complex compliance, regulatory and risk factors surrounding coatings.
Selected substances (currently those on the candidate list of SVHCs, and Annex XVII of REACH) are also linked to the data records for the materials that they impact in Granta's MaterialUniverse data module, which covers 3,000 engineering materials. This can help you make informed decisions—for example, to understand where substances may be used in materials, to assess the risk that a newly restricted substance could pose to your products, and to target resource at a subset of high risk materials.
GRANTA MI allows you to build similar links between the substance records and any information in your corporate materials database that describes the materials or processes in which those substances may be used. You can also add information on in-house substances, regulations, and customer standards.
A typical data structure for restricted substances information. The Restricted Substances data module provides the data tables shown in blue. In-house data (shown in red) can be added using GRANTA MI.
Using the data
With such a structure, it becomes easy to query the data, to generate compliance reports based on the data, and to ask vital questions, such as:
- Does this material or process involve substances that are impacted by current legislation - if so, which legislation? Is it likely to be targeted by future legislation?
- Which production and process materials are not impacted but have similar physical and mechanical properties (and thus may be appropriate substitutes)?
- Which materials may contain this substance? For example, where should we target our resource when carrying out due diligence audit for a new substance added to the REACH Candidate list?
- Which of our manufacturing processes are at risk due to likely future obsolescence of a process chemical?
What substance data is included?
Restricted substance records provide:
- General information about the substance (for example, its CAS Registry Number, IUPAC name and common synonyms)
- Links to all legislation in the database that affect that substance
- Each legislation is given a rating, from 'Banned' at it most severe to 'Caution' at its least severe (the rating system was developed in collaboration with the EMIT Consortium).
- A rolled-up rating can be associated with a substance record, showing the most severe rating of all legislations linked to that substance - this helps with the generation of summary reports for materials or products containing many substances. This rating system is fully customisable and can be replaced by similar in-house systems.
Customisable Profiles can be set up to filter the legislation displayed in the database. So you can quickly assess how legislative environment in different geographies impact on your production and process material portfolio. For example, is material X banned or at risk of phase out in the EU, but not in the US? Similarly, different legislative environments in your supply base and target markets can be quickly assessed. This helps with scenarios such as a substance being banned in your target market, but not in your supply base.
Viewing the data module within the GRANTA MI system. The user has navigated to information on the REACH regulations in the legislation table (shown in the left hand panel) and then clicked through to one of the substances listed as a Substance of Very High Concern under Annex XV of REACH. The record for that substance is shown in the right hand panel.
What legislation data is included?
The Restricted Substances data module currently contains information on the following regulations, standards, and lists.
European legistlation
Asia legislation
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US legislation
Canadian legislation
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Industry Standards / Predictive Lists
- Global Automotive Declarable Substance List (GADSL)
- Joint Industry Guide (JIG)
- Substitute it Now (SIN) List 1.1
- ASD-STAN TR9536 Declarable Substances List
- Afsset
- EPA List of Lists
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Regular update service
The Restricted Substances data module is maintained via a regular update service, ensuring that you are applying up-to-date information in your design process. Database development priorities are defined by the EMIT Consortium.
With the GRANTA MI Notification feature you can place a watch on substance or legislation records of particular interest and be alerted if a data update impacts that record. For example, you would receive a notification if a restricted substance became part of the candidate list of SVHCs under REACH.