SHE

Safety, Health and the Environment: what you need to know about melamine

Safety
Melamine is a safe and non-hazardous chemical. People have been living and working with it for more than four decades. For more detailed data see the Safety Data Sheet. (PDF: 29.8 Kb)

Health
Freshure® Coatings are applied as a very thin layer on plastics, which are in the end product often used in the laminated form. The quantities are therefore so low, they do not represent any danger to the health.

Melamine is approved for direct food contact in Europe so long as migration levels do not exceed 30mg/kg of food. Melamine is also approved for indirect food contact in the USA and in fact it is already used in dinnerware. We have carried out extensive migration tests on different types of laminates. We could not find any migration of melamine (detection limit< 0.1 mg/kg) using wide range of stimulants. Upon request “non-migration declaration” statements can be provided.

Environment
Melamine is not harmful to the environment and it is biodegradable. Toxicity data and melamine’s physical and chemical properties suggest that the product has only low toxicity for soil organisms (including vegetation). Even in the event of a severe spillage, it is unlikely that melamine would harm soil organisms, and given the product’s low solubility in water, migration in soil is limited.