Daikin Fully Stops Production and Use of PFOA and Related Substances

Daikin Industries, Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka; President and CEO: Masanori Togawa) has completely ceased the manufacture and use of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and related substances, and manufacture of products which use PFOA and related substances as a raw material, as of the end of calendar year 2015.

In 2006, Daikin, as a part of its ongoing program for sustainable chemistry, joined the “PFOA 2010/2015 Stewardship Program” (a voluntary PFOA reduction program) together with seven other major fluorochemical companies^*1.

During this program Daikin has developed and brought to the market a variety of alternative replacement products are therefore able to announce that, “Within the end-of-2015 deadline of the Stewardship Program we have ended all manufacture of PFOA and related substances.”

The company will continue to give primary consideration to sustainable chemical management while developing new products. As an example, the company develops many new C6 telomer products, while subjecting them to a variety of health and environmental testing and, making the data from those tests publically available its web site^*2.

• *1 PFOA 2010/2015 Stewardship Program:
  In January 2006, EPA invited the eight major fluoropolymer and telomer manufacturers to join in a global stewardship program with the following two goals:
  
  • 1) To commit to achieve, no later than 2010, a 95 percent reduction, measured from a year 2000 baseline, in both facility emissions to all media and in product content, of PFOA its related compounds, and fluorocarbon telomers with more than 8 carbons.
  • 2) To commit to working toward the elimination of these chemicals from emissions and products by 2015.

The eight participating companies

Arkema, Asahi Glass, BASF Corporation (successor to Ciba Specialty Chemicals), Chemours (successor to DuPont), Archroma (successor to Clariant), 3M/Dyneon, and Solvay Specialty Polymers (successor to Solvay Solexis), along with Daikin

• *2 http://www.daikin.com/chm/csr/