Touch, taste, feel
We live healthy, safe lives by avoiding danger and taking precautions. In other words, we live with hazards by managing the risks they pose – looking before we cross the road, holding the stair rail, turning off the light switch before changing a bulb and wearing gloves in the garden.
This also applies to chemicals. Everything we touch, taste and feel – natural or man-made – is a chemical. Some of the chemicals we use in the home, like bleach, are potentially hazardous. But this does not necessarily mean that the products containing them are dangerous when used correctly.
Unilever determines the safety of chemicals in our products by assessing the risk – taking into account both the inherent properties of the chemicals (hazard) and the way they are used (the exposure to the hazard).
We carefully choose the ingredients we use to ensure they do their job and are safe for people and the environment.
Potential effects
Most of the chemicals that Unilever needs to use are not considered hazardous (although, strictly, everything is hazardous – you can drown in water). But some people worry that scientists don’t know enough about the long-term effects of some chemicals.
It can be difficult to predict the exact behaviour of certain chemicals in the environment – making it hard to assess the precise risks that they might pose to human health and the environment.
There is considerable debate among scientists, lawmakers, campaigners and those in business about the potential effects of some chemicals, grouped in four main categories:
- Chemicals that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT). These don’t break down quickly, accumulate in wildlife and humans and are known to be toxic.
- Chemicals that are very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB). These break down very slowly and accumulate more in wildlife and humans but are not known to be particularly toxic.
- Carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic chemicals (CMRs). In animals and people these can cause cancer, DNA mutations or reproductive damage (impairing fertility or affecting foetal development).
- Endocrine disrupters. Some chemicals are suspected of interfering with the hormonal systems of people and animals.
Taking concerns seriously
Unilever is aware of these concerns and takes them very seriously. Because we place the highest priority on consumer safety and environmental protection we carry out rigorous science-based risk assessments to ensure that our products are safe.
Unilever is totally committed to the human and environmental safety of the products it markets. It uses its Product Safety Clearance System to assess all products before placing them on the market. This system has been in operation for over 30 years and uses highly experienced scientists, including toxicologists, to assess the safety of the product. Unilever ensures that the highest standards of safety and quality are applied, always using regulatory or Unilever requirements as a benchmark, depending on which is the most stringent.