Assessment

How is supporting documentation prepared for Health and Environmental Hazards criteria area?

To carry out a correct assessment of a product within the Health and Environmental Hazards criteria area and obtain a grade, the assessment must be based on 100% of the product content. This means that you, as the supplier, must either have full (100%) knowledge of the product content or obtain guarantees from your suppliers through a signed supplier declaration.. 

Content information

As a general rule, no content information is registered in the BASTA system, with the exception of a limited number of substances subject to declaration requirements. For more information on which specific criteria this applies to, please refer to the Health and Environmental Hazards criteria area..

nformation about product content is only reviewed during a BASTA audit, when the assessment summary and supporting documentation are examined. Read more about this in the BASTA criteria document or under quality assurance.

f you have specific questions regarding certain types of products, you may find answers in our FAQ.

Assessment summary

Companies registering articles in the BASTA system must prepare an assessment summary showing the substances contained in the article and whether they comply with the criteria or not. BASTA has developed a template that can be used for the assessment summary, which is available for download on the document page.

Own assessment summary

You may also use your own assessment summaries, provided they are clear and cover all criteria so that compliance with the criteria can easily be verified. The assessment summary must also reference the supporting documentation that demonstrates compliance with the criteria, such as a signed supplier declaration or a Safety Data Sheet (SDS).

How do I prepare supporting documentation?

Depending on the information available and the design of the product, there are different ways to generate the documentation required for the assessment

For products where the company has complete knowledge of the content, meaning that it knows 100% of what the product contains, this is sufficient documentation for the assessment.
    
Information about the content may, for example, come from one or more of the following sources:

  • Safety Data Sheets (SDS)

    • Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) issued in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Title IV, for the product or its constituent substances. Additional information is required if 100% of the content is not declared.

      If the Safety Data Sheet does not clearly demonstrate that the product complies with the criteria, for example because the declared substance content is not complete (100%), the assessment must be supplemented with additional information regarding the content.

  • Electronic Building Product Declaration (eBVD)

    • Electronic Building Product Declarations (eBVDs) issued in accordance with the eBVD2015 standard. Additional information is required if 100% of the content is not declared.  

If the person carrying out the assessment and registration does not have 100% knowledge of the product content, guarantees from a supplier are required. These can be obtained through a signed Supplier Declaration using a template provided by BASTA or an equivalent document.

The company registering products in the BASTA system must also ensure that the declaration received complies with the BASTA criteria and that the supplier is able to answer questions regarding the declaration during a BASTA audit.

If the product contains recycled or reused material for which complete knowledge of the content is not available, an expert assessment in combination with selected testing is required. The following steps must be completed to ensure compliance with the criteria:

  1. Select an expert who can carry out the assessment (see the definition of expert below). The expert must have extensive knowledge of the substances that may occur in the specific material type.

  2. Carry out an expert assessment in which the expert reviews all criteria and evaluates the risk of substances being present that do not comply with the criteria.

  3. Based on the assessment, the expert must identify any tests or analyses required to verify whether the material complies with the concentration limits specified in the criteria.

  4. The expert assessment and proposed testing must be submitted to BASTA and approved before registration. The documentation must also include information about the expert and their qualifications.

  5. The recommended tests required to verify compliance with the criteria must be carried out and the results documented. Depending on the nature of the material, its origin, and whether concentrations may vary between, for example, different material streams, repeated sampling and testing may be required.

  6. The product is registered in the BASTA system, information on which criteria are fulfilled is recorded, and the product is assigned a grade.

Expert: An expert is a person with extensive competence within the specific material area and knowledge of which substances of concern may be present in the material, based on when it was originally manufactured or due to specific additives, impurities, or other material-related factors. Approval of the expert and the expert assessment is required once for each material or product type, meaning for each new type of recycled or reused material used.

If a product, or a component of a product, is already registered in the BASTA system, reference to that registration may be used as supporting documentation. The company carrying out the secondary registration must obtain written confirmation from the company that originally registered the product, confirming the following:

  • That the registered product is identical to the product being registered.

  • That if the registration status or compliance with the criteria changes for the registered product, the company carrying out the secondary registration will be informed.