■ LOTTE Chemical has conducted the first-ever hazard assessment for its own polymer products in the domestic industry… Systematically measuring how polymer products such as ABS impact human and environmental health.
■ Preemptive evaluation as global customers increasingly demand product information… Planning to publish evaluation reports in the first half of this year and provide them to clients.

LOTTE Chemical is conducting a hazard assessment of its own manufactured products for the first time in the domestic chemical industry. Product hazard assessment is a systematic evaluation system that measures the results of specific chemical products on humans and the environment. By comprehensively analyzing factors such as the substances and amounts contained in the product, toxicity, exposure levels to humans, air, water, and soil, and persistence, information about the product can be conveyed to customers to derive measures to reduce harm to workers exposed to chemical products and end customers. It also plays a role in providing methodology for the development of safer alternative substances and materials by confirming the external impact of the product compared to existing ones.

With the recent emphasis on ESG management and environmental protection, there has been a growing demand for information on product and material hazards, particularly from global customers. In Korea, the "Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (K-REACH)" and the "Chemical Control Act (CCA)" require hazard assessments for chemical "substances". However, these assessments focus mainly on the toxicity of individual "substances", making it difficult to manage the effects of "products" that contain multiple substances on humans and the environment.

Therefore, LOTTE Chemical has decided to conduct a hazardous evaluation of three polymer (mixture) products, including ABS material (VE-0870), which is applied to home appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators, as internal and external materials. LOTTE Chemical is the first Korean company to conduct hazard assessment on ‘products’ themselves.

LOTTE Chemical's product hazard assessment will utilize the K-CHESAR program developed by the Ministry of Environment and the National Institute of Environmental Research. In relation to the data registered on the K-REACH registration system, the assessment process involves measuring the exposure levels of each product for business sites, workers, and consumers, and deriving the hazard of each individual substance that constitutes the product. By gathering this information, each product's overall hazard assessment will be determined and LOTTE Chemical will collaborate with a professional consulting firm (Chemsolve) to ensure accurate data production and verification of hazardous information. The assessment results will be published in a report format in the first half of this year and will be actively utilized in sales activities by posting on the company's website product site and providing to domestic and overseas customers, among others.