Thomas Swan announces positive CoRAP report conclusions

Dibenzamido diphenyl disulphide (DBD) chemistry is used to produce the active ingredient within Pepton®, one of Thomas Swans viscosity-reduction additives for the rubber processing and polymer industries. Pepton® chemical peptisers catalyse the mastication of rubber, providing time, energy, cost and environmental benefits.

When the CoRAP (Community Rolling Action Plan) review of DBD was originally announced in 2014, there was some concern that this important ingredient for truck tyres could be labelled as PBT (persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic in the environment) or vPvB (very persistent/very bioaccumulative). This could have led to DBD being included in the SVHC (Substance of Very High Concern) candidates list.

The news that the CoRAP review is now completed with no further testing and no further action required is very welcome. The overall conclusion of the CoRAP report states: “The eMSCA (evaluating Member State Competent Authority) concludes that N,N’-dithiodi-o-phenylenedibenzamide (DBD) is not a PBT/vPvB substance as neither the parent compound nor the degradation products meet the Annex XIII (of REACH) criteria both for persistence and for bioaccumulation.” In short, the eMSCA agreed with all of the conclusions presented to them as evidence against categorising DBD as either PBT or vPvB. Tyre and rubber product manufacturers who use DBD can therefore continue to use this product in the knowledge that further regulatory reviews are unlikely for the foreseeable future.

John MacKenzie, Regulatory Affairs Manager at Thomas Swan said “We wish to thank our co-registrants for their valuable assistance and expertise in supporting this substance evaluation”.