The EDANA Stewardship Programme Codex™ 

Trace impurities have a long history of being tracked within the membership of EDANA and/or are subject to regulatory scrutiny, ongoing investigation by competent authorities or general consumer concern.

The core of the EDANA Stewardship Programme is the CODEX, which features:

• an industry-wide list of chemicals (including PAHs, PCBs, dioxins, furans, phthalates and formaldehyde). These are not intentionally used to manufacture absorbent hygiene products (AHPs) but may be present in trace amounts
• guidance values defined based on existing related regulations, regulatory guidance, related existing standards or industry experience. These guidance values should not be exceeded.
• harmonised consumer relevant test methods for assessing the presence of the trace chemicals.

Exposure based risk assessment (EBRA) is the method of choice, as a scientifically sound approach using realistic exposure parameters. The guidance values do not affect the requirement to have the necessary safety assessments for individual products to comply with the General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC. The development of guidance values follows a tiered approach and may evolve over time if new scientific data and insights are available or regulatory limits are updated. A Scientific Review Panel provides expert advice on the EDANA Stewardship Programme CODEX. This Scientific Review Panel has also developed a compendium with key facts around AHPs, from supply to manufacture, safety evaluation, market surveillance, with focus on the CODEX guidance values and the analytical extraction methods.