Blue Silicagel & Concluisons - Safety information on blue silicagel - EUROPEAN REGULATIONS REACH DES-CASE Europe

What about Cobalt Chloride used, at 0,5% to treat the silicagel use by DESCASE?

Chapter 4.2.1.2. of annex 6 of European directive (Annex 6 fromm CEE
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concerning "CLASSIFICATION AND LABELLING REQUIREMENTS FOR DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES AND PREPARATIONS" specify: "For classification as a Category 2 carcinogen either positive results in two animal species should be available or clear positive evidence in one species, together with supporting evidence such as genotoxicity data, metabolic or biochemical studies, induction of benign tumours, structural relationship with other known carcinogens, or data from epidemiological studies suggesting an association.". Europen commission recognized that there is no data showing a connection between cancer and Cobalt Chloride; see the summury repport that they established when they decided, out of the scope of the European rules, to classify the cobalt Chloride: record for Cobalt Chloride
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Very important - Last up dated information from Commission Européenne
Dated January 2009, ECHA (European Agency for Chemical Substances, department of European Commission) confirms that there is no an alternative substance or techniques to cobalt dichloride, and instead to restrict the use of Cobalt Dichloride they established that in industry (electroplanting) use of cobalt dichloride could be an emerging new use. . ==> prioritisation_cobalt_dichloride
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GOOD NEWS for DESCASE breathers end users and for DESCASE products. Dated June 15th 2011, ECHA (European Chemicals Agency, official department of CEE) recognises et confirms:
1. Dichlorure de Cobalt, used in DESCASE breathers as humidity indicator, is the only efficient colour additive that can be used.
2. Use of other chemical colour additive, as do few other is not technically suitable (alternatives to cobalt dichloride - e;g; other metal salts, such as iron or copper salts, as proposed by france did not allow the same range of humidity indication and therefore these substances were not considered to be technically suitable).


At this time, no where in the world, there is available test result, for Cobalt Chloride, showing that there is a clear positive evidence in one species in connection with cancer. So in respect of European Commission internal regulation there is no information to establish that Cobalt Chloride may cause cancer. It is for that reeason that Cobalt Chloride is used in many piblic applications:

Worldwide available information on Cobalt Chloride. Cobalt is a natural earth element present in trace amounts in soil, plants and in our diets. Natural sources of cobalt in the environment are soil, dust, seawater, volcanic eruptions and forest fires. It is also released to the environment from burning coal and oil, from car, truck and airplane exhausts, and from industrial processes that use the metal or its compounds. All soil contains some amount of cobalt. Cobalt chloride is essential in trace amounts for human life. It is part of vitamin B-12, and plays a key role in the body's synthesis of this essential vitamin. Cobalt Chloride has also been used as a treatment for anemia, because it causes red blood cells to be produced. FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations) and WHO (World Health Organisation) recommend a 2.4µg/day of vitamin B12 (equivalent to 0,1µg/day of Cobalt) in adult diet.
Cobalt chloride has the potential to substitute for blood doping in athletes.
In the 1960s, some breweries added cobalt to beer to stabilize the foam. Cobalt did not cause cancer in animals that were exposed to it in the air, in food, or in drinking water.
Cobalt and cancer studies on people are inconclusive. Everyone in the world is exposed to at low levels in air, water, and food.

For all of those reasons Cobalt Chloride is used for public application in:
- Ceramics;
- Weather forecast statues
- Desiccant color indicator;
- Color additive for photos;
- Absorbant for toxic gaz and NH3 in respiratory masks;
- Invisible inks;
- Additive for foods;
- Foam stabilizer in beer;
- Manufacture of vitamin B12
For people involved in science and concerned only by facts, there is no available connection between cancer and Cobalt Chloride.

Conclusions:
The Cobalt Chloride is certainly the less hazardous additive that it is possible to use for a desiccant. In addition, as the blue silicagel change 2 to 5 time less quickly than others colored silicagels (Comparison
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On an other side, when employees will have to replace used desiccant, the desiccant may contains up to 30% of carbonized oil mist. It means more than 60 times than the Cobalt Chloride additive uses in blue silicagel. As most of industrial oils contains substances classified as CMR for human, the main concern in a DESCASE breather is not the color additive, but customers oil mists.