How risky is it?

The UK Environment Agency is calling on industry to take a closer look at a chemical called Tert-dodecanethiol (Tert-dodecylmercaptan, TDM) to help clarify the possible risk to the environment.

This chemical is used in products such as automotive parts, carpet backing and some domestic appliances.

The call comes as the Environment Agency presents its research to the UK Chemicals Stakeholder Forum on the risk to the environment of TDM. The resulting assessment indicates that a number of uses of TDM (stemming from emulsion polymerisation) pose a potential risk to the UK environment.

The Environment Agency is looking to identify and take action on chemicals of concern to the environment and humans in implementing its Chemical Strategy.

The Agency is particularly concerned about those harmful chemicals that have the potential to persist in the environment and that can accumulate in organisms including man, and has provisionally identified TDM as one such chemical.

The Environment Agency is asking the chemicals industry to conduct further work to provide information on both the intrinsic properties of the thiols and their use. In particular, information is required on the levels of residual TDM present in polymer emulsions and final products.

It also wants the industry to further develop suitable analytical techniques for analysis of TDM in rubber and polymer emulsions and to determine the levels present, as well as provide information on the persistence of the substance in the environment as soon as possible, initially using a test to determine its potential for oxidation in aqueous solution.

Nick Cartwright, Chemicals Policy Manager for the Environment Agency, said, "We are calling on industry to clarify the risks this substance may pose to the environment and where appropriate to take action."