Product safety

Actively working to ensure that all of our products are safe

At Repsol, we bring innovative products to the market that provide countless advantages to our daily lives. Safety is non-negotiable to us, so we manage the potential risks associated with the use of our products for the people who will handle them.

Safety throughout the product life cycle

We start by identifying the possible adverse effects on people and the environment. Keeping all the uses of the product in mind, we then evaluate the risks and decide on the best measures to ensure that it can be handled safely and with no negative impacts.

Managing safety throughout the life cycle of our products is a key aspect for Repsol. Safety is present in the design and supply stage, right up until the time we make our product available to customers on the market.

Design
- Assess possible adverse effects of products on people and the environment.
- Identify product uses and applications.
- Determine risk management measures based on use.
Procurement
- Collect information about our raw materials.
- Implement the required risk control measures.
Operation
- Design facilities taking into consideration the properties of the products they will contain and manufacture.
- During production assess occupational and environmental risks, implement control measures, and keep our workers informed.
- Classify waste according to its characteristics and adopt measures targeting how its managed.
Transportation
- Implement specific safety measures in line with the corresponding international standards and internal regulations.
Product launch
- Communicate to our customers the possible uses of our products.
- Provide information about the measures to take upon using our products to prevent risks involving facilities, people, and the environment.

For pharma or food packaging applications of products produced by our Chemicals area, we have defined Food Safety Principles that give rise to very specific criteria for each stage in the process in accordance with market demand.

Meeting the most stringent product safety regulations

Product safety is highly regulated worldwide. In Europe, we have created a single system based on international agreements and the Globally Harmonized System (GHS).

First, there is the CLP Regulation, which establishes standards for classifying, labeling, and packaging chemical products. Then there is the REACH Regulation relative to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemical Substances for improving awareness of the dangers and effects of the chemical products on the market to humans and the environment.

Our information and labeling procedures include providing information on the origin of product components, content of the substance that could have a potential environmental or health impact, information on how to safely use a product, and instructions on how to safely dispose of a product.

Gloved hand placing a bottle with a sample in a laboratory machine

Communication plays a key role in product safety

Effectively communicating safety information to all our stakeholders and ensuring that it is understood is key to the company. This communication is done mainly through different documents addressed to:

Customers

Through Safety Data Sheets (SDS), which we prepare following the guidelines of the GHS and the legislation in force in the countries where we market our products.

Company employees

Thanks to internal documents, such as Internal Safety Data Sheets (ISDS) and Product Information Sheets (PIS), our employees have the key information to manage product risk.

Find your Safety Data Sheet (SDS)

Comprehensive information on the characteristics, potential risks, and preventive measures for safely handling our products and the measures to be taken in the event of an incident.

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Ecodesign: Products with a lower impact

We can also gain a deeper understanding of the potential adverse effects on people and the environment and minimize them through ecodesign processes, a methodology for which we have opted to evaluate some of our products in development phases.

Ecodesign is a methodology which, based on life cycle analysis, evaluates, proposes, and prioritizes improvement actions for the purpose of reducing environmental impacts and improving product sustainability, from the generation of its constituent raw materials to the management thereof at the end of their useful life.

The analysis offers a set of internationally recognized metrics increasingly demanded by the governments of the different countries where Repsol operates. Additionally, it offers the opportunity to communicate our achievements to society and differentiate our products from the competition.

Ecodesign allows us to achieve the following challenges:

Evaluate the impacts of our operations and products on a global basis
Integrate a process and product improvement and optimization system
Maximize the environmental benefit of our processes and products

Ecodesign is one of the lines of work that make up Repsol's Circular Economy Strategy.

Networking with specialized organizations

We raise awareness about our products by participating in several EU working groups specializing in Toxicology, Ecotoxicology, and Classification of Commercial Substances.

We are an active member of the leading European industrial associations of the oil and gas industry, such as the European Oil Company Organization for Environment, Health, and Safety, CONCAWE, or the European refining association, Fuels Europe; in addition to chemicals industry associations, such as CEFIC (European Chemical Industry Council), which establishes guidelines in the sphere of product risk management or establishes the best practices for the sector.

With some of the scientific research projects carried out within the sectoral groups, not only do we aim to improve awareness of the potential impact on health or the environment, but also to advance in the development of new non-experimental techniques to learn the dangers of the substances.