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A plasticizer for sensitive applications |
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With Hexamoll® DINCH, BASF offers an innovative solution for soft PVC toys, medical devices and food contact applications |
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The Story
Young children explore the world with inexhaustible curiosity. And when they discover something new, one of the first things they do is - put it in their mouth. In the first few months of life, tactile sensitivity (especially of the lips and tongue) is particularly pronounced while the other senses are still in the process of developing. This is why children literally feast on their toys: with obvious delight, they chew around on animal figures and suck away at rubber ducks. Often, these are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a versatile plastic without which the modern world of toys is hardly imaginable.
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| Whether used in a ball or a pony: Hexamoll® DINCH not only makes PVC flexible and elastic, but also complies with the new EU regulations. |
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To ensure the safety of soft PVC toys, the EU issued a regulation which from the year 2007 onwards restricts the use of certain additives from the plasticizers group in toys and children articles. Since 1997, BASF has been vigorously pursuing the broad-based research project "Sustainable plasticizers" with the target to develop alternative plasticizers for sensitive applications. "With Hexamoll® DINCH, we have developed an innovative plasticizer whose health safety is beyond all question", comments Heidrun Goth, marketing expert in BASF Petrochemicals Division. "This now allows us to offer toy manufacturers an ideal solution to adapting their products to the requirements of the new EU regulation", assures Goth. BASF specialists are on hand to help with switching production to plastic mixtures containing the new plasticizer.
Leaving out plasticizers completely isn't possible. Without them, PVC is brittle and snaps like a dry noodle. Like the boiling water that softens the pasta, the chemical additives in PVC act like a lubricant between the molecule chains of the polymer and make the plastic as soft and supple as is required for the intended application. "From the start Hexamoll® DINCH was subject to a large number of toxicological tests. In total € 5 million have been spent on toxicological testing, making Hexamoll® DINCH the best researched plasticizer on the market", explains BASF toxicologist and product safety expert Dr. Rainer Otter. "All tests confirmed the excellent toxicological profile of Hexamoll® DINCH, underlining its exceptional suitability for sensitive applications." Furthermore, Hexamoll® DINCH is also remarkable for its extremely low migration rate - the amount of plasticizer molecules released by the plastic into a surrounding medium - that has also been confirmed during comprehensive tests by the Fraunhofer-Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging.
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| With EFSA approval and recommendation from the BfR Hexamoll® DINCH is ideal for food contact applications. |
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Hexamoll® DINCH is thus the plasticizer of choice for use in many medical devices where the plastic is in close contact with products which directly enter the patient's body. Enteral nutrition administered via stomach tube, for example, involves the use of bags and tubes made of soft PVC. Pfrimmer-Nutricia (Numico), one of the largest manufacturers of such feeding sets, has switched its production completely to Hexamoll® DINCH in 2005. "In view of the concerns surrounding some plasticizers, we wanted to be the first in our sector to completely eliminate these substances and further improve patient safety", explains Dagmar Dehler of the marketing department of the medical devices manufacturer. "After all, with Hexamoll® DINCH a safe alternative is now available. And despite the somewhat higher costs, we shall be able to keep our product prices steady."
Incidentally, the innovative transfer sets can be recognized from the color lilac which is used by Pfrimmer-Nutricia to distinguish them more clearly. More and more of the approximately 75,000 transfer devices used daily in German hospitals and in home care contain the safe plasticizer. Hexamoll® DINCH is also being used for artificial respiration systems.
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