Several years back Nokia made an ambitious voluntary commitment to phase out not only brominated flame retardants (BFR), but also other compounds of bromine, chlorine and antimony trioxide as defined in Nokia Substance List (NSL), from all our new mobile devices and accessories.
Considering the breadth of the substances to be phased out as well as our scale of operations, this project has demanded extensive R&D, actions and cooperation with our suppliers.
By driving this phase-out project, we have been doing pioneering work, and in collaboration with our suppliers helped clean out the industry from these substances, also for others who use same sources of components. Despite the economic downturn, we have maintained and remain committed to our original aim
In November 2008, we launched our first device free of brominated compounds, chlorinated flame retardants and antimony trioxide, ahead of schedule. A total of 46 new Nokia models free of these substances were launched prior to our phase-out deadline, end of 2009.
From the beginning of 2010, all new Nokia products must be free of bromine, chlorine and antimony trioxide as defined in the Nokia substance list.
No nickel on product surfaces
All Nokia devices comply with strict global safety and quality standards. We use nickel at levels well within current legal and safety limits. It is our policy to ensure that all our new devices are free of nickel on product surfaces.
Some metal alloys used on product surfaces such as stainless steel do contain nickel, but standardised testing has shown that these do not cause nickel sensitivity in the general population. However, Nokia offers a wide range of models without stainless steel on their surfaces as well.
Information about whether a product contains nickel or stainless steel can be found in the Eco profile of each individual product.
View Eco profiles
Tantalum and coltan
Tantalum is a material used in many consumer electronics products. The mobile phone industry uses a very small amount of the world’s total supply of tantalum.
Nokia became aware of the potential link between mining of tantalum and financing of the conflict in the Democratic republic of Congo (DRC) in 2001, and took action immediately. The DRC is one of the places where tantalum or coltan is mined. It is found in the east of the country where there is conflict, leading to concerns that tantalum may be mined under conditions breaching human rights or sold to fund war and illegal activity.
As soon as we became aware of this issue we instigated a requirement for suppliers of capacitors used in our mobile phones to confirm they have not sourced their material from the conflict areas of the DRC.
We take continuous action to ensure that metals from the conflict areas do not enter our supply chain.
Read more about our supply chain.
Coltan and tantalum are also monitored and tracked in the Nokia Substance List.
Other materials and substances to be phased out
Nokia has banned the use of beryllium oxide since 2004 in all new products. The restriction for use of all other beryllium compounds has been in force since 2010 for all new products. The first technology area in which we have completely phased out beryllium and its compounds is connector technology. Alongside the new products, the connector technology phase-out has been applied also for the older products still in production. Nokia is actively searching for alternative materials to replace beryllium also in other technology areas where technically suitable materials have not been available so far.
Use of phthalates in our products has been restricted since 2005. The ban includes eight different phthalates of which seven are restricted based on EU regulation.