Impact of European chemicals regulation on the industrial use of plasticizers and patterns of substitution in Scandinavia,

This paper investigates the impact of chemicals regulation on substitution of chemicals by analyzing time trends in the industrial use of chemicals from 2000 to 2014 in Scan-dinavia. It is shown that the use of ten water-relevant SVHCs decreased by about 90% in the considered period in Sweden as compared to a control group of unregulated substances which decreased by only 20%. A closer inspection of the use of 23 highly used plasticizers revealed that the use of regulated phthalate plasticizers decreased while the use of non-phthalate plasticizers increased.