Every number on PlasticAdditives.net is published with the source it came from, and the source is named in the sentence that uses it: the instrument, the registry entry, the standard with its edition, the study with its authors and year, or the manufacturer whose data sheet carries the value. So which sources does a plastic additives reference accept, and which one wins when two of them disagree?
By the PlasticAdditives.net Editorial Team. Page last reviewed 25 September 2026. This page states the sourcing standards; the rules they serve are set out in the editorial policy.
This page sets out which authorities are cited and what is taken from each, the order of authority between them, how a regulatory statement is written, how test standards and market figures are cited, what happens to a value that cannot be verified, how often a page is reviewed and when a regulatory change is picked up, and how an error is corrected.
Sources and Standards We Cite#
The content is compiled from the bodies that write the rules and the methods: EU and US regulators, international treaty secretariats, standards bodies, chemical identity registries, peer-reviewed literature and reference handbooks, and manufacturer technical data. Each group answers a different kind of question, and each one is used only for the kind of value it is authoritative for.
Table T1. What we take from each group of sources, and what we never take from it.
| Group | Named authorities | What we take from it | What we never take from it |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU law and agencies | EUR-Lex and the Official Journal of the European Union for Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 on food-contact plastics, the REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, the POPs Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation; ECHA for the SVHC Candidate List, Annex XIV authorisation and Annex XVII restrictions | The wording of the obligation, the entry or article number, the limit and the date it applies from | Performance data, dosage advice or any statement about how well an additive works |
| US federal and state | The eCFR and FDA for 21 CFR food-contact clearances and effective Food Contact Notifications; the Federal Register for rules and notices; the EPA for TSCA risk evaluations; OEHHA for the Proposition 65 list | The clearance conditions and their section number, the listing and its date, the scope of a rule | An "approval" framing for a substance, or the extension of one company's Food Contact Notification to another company's grade |
| International treaties | The Stockholm Convention register at pops.int and the BRS Secretariat | The listing, the annex it sits in and the Conference of the Parties decision that made it | The date an obligation applies in a given country, which comes from that country's own instrument |
| Standards bodies | ISO, ASTM, IEC and UL, for example UL 94 for flammability classification, ASTM D2863 and ISO 4589-2 for limiting oxygen index, ISO 11357-6 for oxidation induction time, ISO 1133 and ASTM D1238 for melt flow rate, ISO 4892 and ASTM G154 for weathering | The method number and its current edition, what the method measures, the test conditions and the classification criteria | A pass or a rating for a named commercial grade, which belongs to that grade's own test report |
| Chemical identity registries | PubChem, ECHA substance infocards, NIST | CAS number, EC number, molecular formula, molar mass and notified GHS classifications | Regulatory status, dosage ranges or food-contact clearance |
| Peer-reviewed literature and reference handbooks | Journal articles cited with author, institution and year; standard reference works such as the Hanser Plastics Additives Handbook | Degradation and stabilisation mechanisms, measured property data, composition and concentration ranges found in products | A current regulatory limit, because an edition or a paper can be older than the instrument in force |
| Manufacturer and association technical data | Technical data sheets and brochures from producers such as BASF, Clariant, Songwon, Palsgaard and Ampacet; association documents from European Plasticisers, VinylPlus, ECVM and PlasticsEurope; named market analysts | Grade names, typical values and dosage ranges for a named grade, and market figures published as a range with the analyst and the year | Regulatory status, hazard classification, or any claim that a grade is the best or the safest |
Every authority in this table is named on the pages that use it, so a reader can go to the source rather than take the value on trust.
The order of authority#
Primary legal texts and official registries outrank reference handbooks and peer-reviewed literature, and both outrank supplier and trade material; a lower level never overrides a higher one. In practice that means four levels:
- The binding text or the regulator's own register: EUR-Lex and the Official Journal, ECHA, the eCFR and the Federal Register, OEHHA, pops.int and the EPA. Binding for any limit, entry number, listing or date.
- Standards bodies and chemical identity registries: ISO, ASTM, IEC and UL for methods and criteria; PubChem, ECHA infocards and NIST for identity.
- Peer-reviewed literature and reference handbooks, cited with author, institution and year, or with edition. Used for mechanisms, measured data and composition ranges.
- Manufacturer data sheets, association documents and analyst reports, always attributed in the sentence. Used for grade data, dosage ranges and market ranges only.
A value from a lower level is never published as though it came from a higher one. Where a supplier or an analyst is the only source for a figure, the page says so and names them in the same sentence.
How a source appears inside an article#
A source is named in the sentence that uses it, with the researchers, the institution and the year for a study, or the instrument, the entry number and the application date for a rule. Two examples show the pattern: "The ranges come from the review by John Hahladakis and colleagues at the University of Leeds (Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2018)." and "Lead in PVC has been restricted to below 0.1 % since 29 November 2024 under REACH Annex XVII entry 63, introduced by Regulation (EU) 2023/923." Neither carries a bare footnote number; the source sits inside the claim it supports.
On a substance profile the same rule is visible value by value: identity from a chemical registry, REACH status from ECHA, the food-contact entry from the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, the dosage range from a named data sheet or paper. The profiles are collected under plastic additive substance profiles, and the families they belong to under plastic additives.
How We Cite Plastic Additive Regulations#
Every regulatory statement on this site carries its instrument, its entry number and the date the obligation applies, because a limit without a date cannot be used in a specification. EU instruments are cited in full: "Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH)", "Regulation (EU) No 10/2011", "Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 (POPs Regulation)"; numbered EU acts from 2015 onward carry no "No". The ECHA Candidate List is always written as the "SVHC Candidate List", never as an "SVHC list of banned substances", because the Candidate List itself is not a ban.
In force, adopted and proposed are never written the same way#
In force, adopted and proposed are three different statuses on this site, and a proposal is never written as a rule. The MCCP restriction under Commission Delegated Regulation C(2026) 6262, adopted 11 September 2026 and due to apply 16 December 2026, is written as "adopted by the Commission, not yet published in the Official Journal", pending scrutiny. The universal PFAS restriction, which is only proposed, is written as "restriction pending" and never as "the EU has banned PFAS".
Table T2. Status wording.
| Status | Wording used | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| In force | The date the obligation applies, with the instrument | "Lead in PVC below 0.1% from 29 November 2024 (REACH Annex XVII entry 63)" |
| Adopted, not yet published | "adopted by the Commission, not yet published in the Official Journal" | MCCP in the EU POPs Regulation: C(2026) 6262, adopted 11 September 2026 |
| Proposed or pending | "proposed", "restriction pending", "consultation closed" | The universal PFAS restriction; the FDA phthalate action of 27 May 2026 |
| Withdrawn or superseded | The current value only, with the superseding instrument named | The old EU phthalate SMLs, replaced by Regulation (EU) 2023/1442 |
Why we never write "FDA approved"#
No plastic additive is "FDA approved": US food-contact clearance works by regulation or by an effective food contact notification, so the site writes "complies with 21 CFR 178.2010 for polyolefins" or "subject of effective FCN No. 825" instead. An FCN covers only the notifier named in it, not every producer of the same substance, so a page never extends a notifier's clearance to a competing grade. The clearance routes are set out in full on FDA food contact rules for plastic additives, including how an effective FCN differs from a listed regulation.
Test standards are cited in their current edition#
Test standards are cited with their current edition and never with a withdrawn one, so the yellowness index is always ASTM E313 and never the withdrawn ASTM D1925. Limiting oxygen index is cited as ASTM D2863-23e1 and ISO 4589-2, oxidation induction time as ISO 11357-6:2018 and ASTM D3895, haze as ASTM D1003-21 and coefficient of friction as ASTM D1894. The method, the units and the typical values for each are on testing plastic additives.
Market figures always carry the analyst and the year#
A market size is published as a range with the analyst and the year attached, because analysts define the plastic additives market differently: USD 43.5 billion (2023, MarketsandMarkets) to USD 63.71 billion (2025, Precedence Research). By volume, the equivalent figure is about 36.7 million tonnes (2023, Ceresana). No page on this site prints a single unsourced market number; the full analyst range by segment and region is on plastic additives market.
How the Same Number Stays the Same on Every Page#
A CAS number, an SML, a listing date, a dosage range or a UL 94 claim has one value across this site, and a page that disagrees with the source is wrong rather than an alternative view. Naming follows the same rule: "DOP" and "dioctyl phthalate" in trade usage mean DEHP, CAS 117-81-7, never DNOP, CAS 117-84-0, while DOTP, CAS 6422-86-2, is a terephthalate written as "non-ortho-phthalate" where precision matters. When a regulation or a standard edition changes, the regulation pages, the timeline and every page that stated the old value are corrected together.
Names, abbreviations and glossary terms are fixed site-wide#
An abbreviation has one meaning on this site: "PPA" is a polymer processing aid, "TPPi" is triphenyl phosphite, and pentaerythritol is never shortened to "PE". TBLS means tribasic lead sulfate only, Tinuvin 292 and Tinuvin 765 are treated as the same reaction mass, and a polymer production aid under Article 3(8) of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 is kept apart from a polymer processing aid, because the first makes the polymer and the second is not an additive at all. Each fixed term has an entry in the plastic additives glossary.
What Happens to a Value We Cannot Verify#
A value we cannot trace to a source that is authoritative for it is not published: the page states what is known, names what is still to be confirmed, and prints no number in its place. We publish the gap rather than an estimate, because a reader building a specification needs to know which of the two they are looking at. Three current examples:
- The UL 94 HF-1 and HF-2 afterflame criteria have not been checked against the UL 94 text, so only the V-0, V-1 and V-2 criteria are published.
- PVC hot and cold dry-blend mixer temperatures have no confirmed source, so the process steps are described with no temperature attached.
- The food-contact status of hydrotalcite is unconfirmed as a positive clearance, so only its absence from 21 CFR 178.2010 is stated.
Table T3. What is withheld, and what the page says instead.
| Claim | Why it is withheld | What the page says instead |
|---|---|---|
| UL 94 HF-1 and HF-2 afterflame times | Not checked against the UL 94 text | The V-0, V-1 and V-2 criteria, which were verified |
| PVC dry-blend mixer temperatures | No source found | The process steps, with no temperature |
| The final EU text of the universal PFAS restriction | SEAC has published only a draft opinion, so no restriction text exists | "Restriction pending", with the RAC and SEAC opinion dates that were confirmed |
| Additive prices | No licensed price source | The price drivers and the grade differences, with the missing data source named |
An item held back this way is re-checked before the affected page is next updated, and it is never published on the strength of a partial source.
How the SVHC Candidate List count is verified#
The site prints a total of 253 entries for the SVHC Candidate List, read from ECHA's own obligation-list interface rather than from a bulletin, and dated to the most recent update of 4 February 2026. The public Candidate List table on echa.europa.eu does not give a reliable total, which is why this figure stayed unpublished until it could be read from ECHA's own obligation list: a count taken from a testing-house bulletin was not enough. The list is normally updated in January and June, so the total always carries the date of the update it was read at, and the per-substance listing dates are on SVHC Candidate List.
Additives for plastics only: the topical border#
The site covers additives used in plastics only, which means thermoplastics, thermosets used as plastics, compounds and masterbatch, and it excludes 10 neighbouring fields even where the chemistry is the same:
- Concrete and cement admixtures
- Paints, coatings and inks
- Adhesives and sealants
- Fuel and lubricating-oil additives
- Food and feed additives
- Cosmetics
- Textile finishing
- Paper chemicals
- Pure rubber chemistry
- Polymerisation catalysts, curing agents and monomers
A substance used in plastics and in one of these fields, such as BHT, titanium dioxide or azodicarbonamide, is covered here for its plastics use only, with any other use limited to one short supplementary section. This border is a scope decision, not a statement about what could be found.
How Often Pages Are Reviewed, and When a Regulatory Change Is Picked Up#
Every page carries a last-reviewed date, and a page is reviewed when the thing it cites changes rather than on a fixed calendar: an Official Journal publication, an SVHC Candidate List update, a Stockholm Convention listing, an FDA or EPA action, or a new edition of a test standard. The SVHC Candidate List is normally updated twice a year, in January and June, and every page naming a listed additive is checked within that cycle. Stockholm Convention listings follow each Conference of the Parties, such as COP-11 in May 2023 and COP-12 in April and May 2025.
Table T4. What triggers a review.
| Trigger | Source watched | What is reviewed | Typical frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| SVHC Candidate List update | ECHA | The SVHC pages and every page naming an affected substance | Normally twice a year, January and June |
| Stockholm Convention listing | pops.int and the EU POPs Regulation | The POPs values and every affected substance | At each Conference of the Parties |
| EU Official Journal publication | EUR-Lex | The regulation pages, the timeline and the affected substance pages | Continuous |
| FDA or EPA action | Federal Register, eCFR | The US regulatory fields on every affected page | Continuous |
| New standard edition | ASTM, ISO, IEC, UL | The testing pages and every page citing that standard | Annual check |
| Price guides | The named market sources | The price pages | Quarterly, until a licensed price source is in place |
Regulatory changes are published as news and written into the affected pages#
A regulatory change is published twice: once as a dated news item, and once inside every evergreen page that stated the old value. Each change is dated in plastic additives news and written into the affected pages on the same day, so the news item and the reference page never disagree on the current value.
How Errors Are Corrected#
A reported error is checked against the source the value claims to come from, and when that source disagrees with the page, the source wins and the page is corrected. The correction runs in a fixed order.
- Check the reported value against the source that is authoritative for it.
- Correct the value.
- Correct every other page that stated the old value.
- Record the correction and its date on the page.
An error report needs 3 things: the page, the value that is wrong, and the source that shows the correct value. The more precise the source, entry number or standard edition, the faster the correction.
The full correction, complaints and right-of-reply procedure is in the editorial policy.
Who Writes PlasticAdditives.net#
PlasticAdditives.net is written and maintained by the PlasticAdditives.net Editorial Team, and the site publishes no author persona and no credentials it cannot evidence. No page names a chemist, a laboratory or a reviewer, and no page claims that one checked it. Every article carries a team byline and a note linking to this page, so a reader can trace any figure to the authority it came from. Who runs the reference is on about PlasticAdditives.net.
How Independent Is PlasticAdditives.net?#
PlasticAdditives.net is not owned by an additive producer and sells no additives, which is why a grade from any supplier can be compared against any other on the same page. The site is supplier-neutral by structure: it holds no product portfolio of its own, so no comparison table has a reason to favour one manufacturer over another. The sections of the independent plastic additives reference are listed on the home page.
How the site makes money#
The site earns money in 3 ways: display advertising, quote requests passed to suppliers, and gated selection guides. A supplier can pay for a labelled listing in the plastic additive supplier finder. A payment never changes the order of a comparison table, the content of a technical page, or which grades are named.
- Display advertising, placed away from main content on trust pages
- Quote requests, collected through the supplier finder and passed to suppliers
- Gated selection guides, which collect an email, a role and a company
How supplier and price data is handled#
A supplier entry carries only company data that a named source supports, so a grade, a plant location or a certification with no source behind it is left out rather than estimated. Price figures follow the same rule: a price is published only with a source and a date, and otherwise the page describes the price drivers and grade differences in words and names the missing data source. The comparison rules for plastic additive manufacturers and suppliers apply to every directory page.
Sources we check against. Every regulatory and identity claim on this site is checked against one or more of: EUR-Lex, ECHA, the eCFR, OEHHA, pops.int, the US Federal Register and EPA, and PubChem.