ETRMA completes second test on REACH compliance of tyres

ERJ staff report (DS)

Brussels, October 17 2011. The ETRMA (European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers' Association) today announced the results of its second round of tyre testing.

Under the EU's REACH Regulation, high-PAH oils are banned from use in production of all tyres aimed for motor vehicles and are produced after January 1st, 2010 for sale on the EU market. Despite the publicity given to ETRMA's first round of tests, some 10% of tested tyres, all of which are imports, were again found to be non-compliant.

ETRMA's second testing campaign was carried out between April and September 2011 on a sample of 94 tyres available for sale to EU consumers in several of the largest national tyre markets. These tyres were all produced in late 2010 and 2011 in 50 factories located in 11 countries, and are being sold in the EU under 51 brand names (these include 31 brands not tested in the first round).

10% of the 94 sampled tyres are non-compliant, containing PAH levels prohibited by REACH and therefore being sold illegally on the EU market. Some of the non-compliant tyres are from brands which had non-compliant tyres in the first round. In addition, one factory has been shown to be systematically non-compliant: 5 of its tyres under 4 different brand names, including both passenger car and truck tyres, were tested and each of these tyres exceeds the allowed PAH limit.

Overall, the second test program covered truck, passenger summer and winter, motorcycle and agricultural tyre types. As in the first round of testing, all tyres in the sample group were purchased from available stocks at consumer retail outlets in major EU tyre markets (Germany, UK, Italy, etc.). Initial testing was carried out by ETRMA members. Any tyre that presented abnormal PAH results was then sent to a certified independent laboratory and tested according to the standard defined in REACH (ISO 21461). Only those tyres found to be non-compliant by these independent laboratories are reported here. The testing procedure and test results are fully and carefully documented.

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Press release from ETRMA