Fresenius Medical Care dialysis products awarded Nordic Ecolabel

17 December 2008

Fresenius Medical Care has been awarded a Nordic Ecolable license for its peritoneal dialysis bags. The first Ecolabelling of its kind in the world, the dialysis Ecolabel applies to peritoneal dialysis bags and disposables used both in hospitals and in homes.

“We are pleased to be the first healthcare company with Ecolabelled products on the market. Reducing the negative impact on the environment has always been in the forefront in our company. We started in the nineties when PVC was a much discussed topic. It has now resurfaced, which shows how important this issue is,” said Fredrik Gustafsson, Managing Director of Fresenius Medical Care in Sweden.

Ecolabelled peritoneal dialysis and intravenous infusion treatment bags have a number of environmental benefits. Most dialysis bags are made from PVC which includes harmful phthalates. A Nordic Ecolabelled dialysis bag is free of PVC, endocrine disruptors, persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances.

Use of Ecolabelled products could reduce the use of phthalates in the Nordic region by approximately 100 tonnes. Some phthalates, used as softeners for plastics, are believed to negatively affect the reproductive ability of both humans and animals.

“The healthcare sector is critically important to the goal of reducing environmental impact. Many disposable products are used in hospitals but also in patients’ homes. To Ecolabel these products makes it easier for healthcare procurement staff to select the best products for the environment,” said Cecilia Ehrenborg Williams, Business to Business Manager, Nordic Ecolabel.

The Ecolabel covers the entire product packaging material: the dialysis bag, its tubes or other accessories, and the outer-packaging it comes in. The Nordic Ecolabel goes beyond demonstrating that a product has a low environmental impact. It also guarantees that the manufacturing processes and quality standards for Ecolabelled products are state of the art.

Since these products are disposable, they generate an excessive amount of waste. These Ecolabelled dialysis bags generate less waste than traditional bags with the added bonus of being less hazardous to both people and the environment.

In addition to reducing phthalate exposure to the human body, waste generation could be reduced by approximately one fifth compared with other PVC bags and without the toxic substances that are otherwise deposited with the trash. This reduction in waste material is a climate-related aspect since less fuel is used in the transportation and less energy is needed to dispose of these bags.

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