At the request of the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (EUROFER), the European Union Ecolabel Board (EUEB) has decided that, for the first product group regulated under the new EU Ecolabel Regulation, nickel in stainless steel will not be subject to the hazardous substances requirements of the regulation.
According to a EUROFER statement, the association expects that the same procedure will be applied for other product groups, following the decision for nickel on October 21, 2010
Although studies show that there is no risk related to the use of nickel in stainless steel, nickel is on a list of substances in products which would have been excluded from ecolabelling in the EU. As nickel is an essential part of stainless steel production, this would have had severe consequences, EUROFER said.