Updated PRIO online tool supports companies and public sector to set priorities to substitute hazardous substances
The Swedish Chemicals Agency proudly relaunches an updated version of PRIO, now named PRIO - a tool for substitution. PRIO helps companies to replace hazardous substances in their articles and chemical products. The target audience is companies that manufacture, import, or buy articles and chemical products, and procurement managers or inspectors at municipalities and county administrations. PRIO is an online tool freely available in both Swedish and English.
– By using PRIO, companies can work proactively with chemical issues and keep one step ahead of legislation by phasing out the use of hazardous substances. PRIO is a voluntary tool for companies, to use in their work on substitution and for the development towards a circular economy. Companies that replace hazardous chemicals with less hazardous chemicals contribute to toxic free environment and may also realise competitive advantages, says Director General of the Swedish Chemicals Agency Per Ängquist.
The updated PRIO provides a structured approach to identifying and prioritising hazardous substances for substitution. It consists of a four-step guide that focuses on Inventory, Search, Prioritisation and Substitution with supporting information and a searchable database containing more than 10,000 substances with hazardous properties that meet the PRIO criteria.
PRIO provides companies and public actors easy access to information about
- how hazardous a certain substance is,
- hazardous substances that may be present in materials/articles or chemical products,
- which substance or substances should be prioritised for removal from materials/articles and chemical products.
It provides tips on how to
- work systematically with substitution,
- set chemical-related requirements when purchasing,
- access information on the relevant legislation the user may need to comply with via link to the EU Chemicals Agency ECHA's tool EUCLEF.
New criteria, twice as many substances, new features, and better usability
PRIO, first launched in 2004, has undergone a major update to improve usability and functionality. We have, from selected sources, added information about the potential occurrence of the PRIO substances in various materials. This is to meet the companies' need for knowledge regarding the presence of hazardous substances in various materials and articles, which is an important part of the substitution work.
Features of updated PRIO
- new criteria for Phase-out substances and Priority risk-reduction substances. For instance, we have added Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, as a group to the criteria of Phase-out substances. This means a doubling of the number of substances in the database to just over 10,000,
- new and improved search function – enables to search for a substance’s potential occurrence in materials,
- ability to search on several CAS Numbers at the same time with the Batch Search function,
- improved display of search results from the PRIO database,
- showing the PRIO substance's association to a material,
- ability to sort amongst search results,
- ability to easily export search results (or the entire database) to an Excel file,
- updated information and guidance texts.
Read more about substitution of hazardous substances
For more information, please contact:
Jessica Norrgran Engdahl, PhD, Environmental chemist, + 46 (8) 519 41 339
The Swedish Chemicals Agency's press service, + 46 (8) 519 41 200, press@kemi.se
The Swedish Chemicals Agency's information service Ask the Swedish Chemicals Agency Helpdesk