Chemical Transparency Is Becoming a Healthcare Priority

02 Sep 2026

How Product Chemistry, Indoor Air Quality, and Evolving Procurement Expectations Are Changing the Conversation for Manufacturers

A medical product may perform exactly as intended and still raise questions that traditional performance specifications do not answer. What chemicals are present? Could the product release compounds into the surrounding environment? Can the manufacturer support its claims with consistent, credible data?

These questions are becoming more important across healthcare. Hospitals serve patients with a wide range of ages, health conditions, and sensitivities, while clinicians and staff may spend long hours in the same indoor spaces. That makes the relationship between a product and its environment more than a theoretical concern.

What Chemical Transparency Really Means

At its simplest, chemical transparency means understanding and communicating which chemicals are present in a product. The information may begin with supplier declarations and material documentation, then progress to a formal disclosure framework, product testing, or third-party certification.

It does not mean publishing a proprietary formulation or exposing trade secrets. The goal is to provide enough reliable information for customers, procurement teams, regulators, and other stakeholders to understand what they are bringing into a healthcare environment.

Chemical transparency and indoor air quality are closely related, but they answer different questions. Chemical transparency asks, "What is in the product?" Indoor air quality asks, "How does that product affect the air around us?" Depending on the product and its intended use, that may include emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone, or other substances that can influence indoor air quality.

Ventilation and filtration remain essential parts of indoor air quality, but the products installed or operated inside a building also matter. In healthcare, where occupants may be more susceptible to respiratory irritation or other adverse effects, evaluating product emissions can become an important part of a broader healthier-materials strategy.

Why Healthcare Organizations Are Paying Attention

Concern about chemicals such as PFAS, bisphenols, and certain VOCs has increased regulatory, purchasing, and public scrutiny. The risks vary by substance, concentration, exposure pathway, and duration, which is precisely why clear product information matters. Broad claims are less useful than data that identifies what was evaluated, how it was measured, and what threshold was applied.

Healthcare procurement is also changing. Performance, safety, availability, and cost remain central to purchasing decisions, but many health systems now consider environmental health and sustainability alongside those traditional criteria. Environmentally preferable purchasing programs, healthier-materials requirements, low-emitting product specifications, and LEED-oriented building policies are examples of how these priorities are moving into practice.

Much of that activity has focused on construction materials, furniture, cleaning products, and air-cleaning equipment. Medical device manufacturers should still pay attention. Once purchasing teams become accustomed to requesting chemical disclosures and emissions information in one product category, similar questions can begin to appear elsewhere in the supply base.

Chemical transparency is a starting point for better decisions. It is not a demand to redesign every product overnight.

Transparency Does Not Require Immediate Substitution

Medical devices have requirements that many other products do not. Materials may need to withstand sterilization, repeated cleaning, mechanical stress, demanding duty cycles, and long service lives. They may also be selected to meet biocompatibility, electrical safety, or other regulatory requirements.

For that reason, chemical transparency should not be confused with automatic elimination. The first step is to identify and document what is present. Some uses of a chemical may be difficult to replace because an alternative is not yet available, has not been adequately validated, or would compromise an essential function. A hurried substitution can create a different safety or performance problem.

A component-level approach is often more practical. Manufacturers can map where a chemical of concern appears, distinguish between essential and nonessential uses, and evaluate alternatives where the technical requirements allow it. If a chemistry must remain in one critical component, there may still be opportunities to reduce or avoid it elsewhere in the product.

Transparency and performance are not opposing goals. Better information allows engineering, regulatory, sustainability, and procurement teams to make deliberate choices, document unavoidable uses, and pursue safer chemistry where it is technically feasible.

Where Manufacturers Can Begin

A chemical transparency program doesn't have to start with a complete overhaul of the supply chain. Instead, it begins with understanding what the organization already knows, identifying gaps in that knowledge, and evaluating what customers and the market are already asking for. From there, manufacturers can prioritize efforts based on the materials, components, and product attributes that are most relevant to human health, indoor air quality, and sustainability.

Build a Product and Material Map

Gather supplier declarations, specifications, safety data sheets, test reports, and existing certifications for key materials and components. Complex devices may rely on hundreds or even thousands of suppliers, so prioritization is important. Start with materials that are present in significant quantities, perform a critical function, contact patients or users, or are associated with a known chemical concern.

Identify the Information Gaps

A missing declaration, an outdated test report, or an unclear reporting threshold can be as significant as the data already in hand. Record those gaps and determine which suppliers need follow-up. This creates a manageable work plan instead of an open-ended request for every supplier to provide everything at once.

Start with Real Customer Questions

Manufacturers do not have to invent demand. Customers may already be asking for PFAS declarations, Health Product Declarations, restricted-substance information, or evidence of low VOC or ozone emissions. Those requests can help define the first phase of the program and show where stronger data could support a purchasing decision.

Use an Established Framework

Health Product Declarations, restricted-substance lists, supplier disclosure protocols, emissions testing, and certification programs can provide structure. Existing frameworks clarify the information required, create a repeatable evaluation process, and reduce the need to develop a new system from the ground up.

The Difficult Part is Often the Data

Voluntary sustainability information is not always reported consistently. One supplier may provide results for individual PFAS compounds at a low detection limit, while another may report a broader total-fluorine screen at a different concentration. Those methods answer different questions and cannot be treated as interchangeable.

Similar issues arise with units, detection limits, test conditions, pass-fail criteria, and the age or scope of a report. Without a common framework, manufacturers may find themselves comparing documents that look similar but provide very different levels of evidence.

Proprietary chemistry creates another challenge. Suppliers may be willing to confirm compliance but reluctant to share formulations or detailed analytical data with every company downstream. That tension is especially pronounced for high-performance materials and advanced medical technologies, where intellectual property can be central to a supplier’s competitive position.

How Independent Verification Helps

Third-party testing and certification can create consistency where supplier data varies. A defined program establishes which information must be submitted, how it will be evaluated, which test methods apply, and how the result will be reported. This makes claims easier to understand and compare.

It can also protect confidential information. Detailed formulations, supply-chain records, and test results can be reviewed by an independent organization without being broadly disclosed. Customers receive evidence that a product meets the applicable criteria, while the underlying proprietary information remains controlled.

For manufacturers, that independent review can strengthen sustainability claims, support customer questionnaires, and reduce repeated one-off data requests. For healthcare organizations, it provides greater confidence that product information has been evaluated through a consistent process.

A Practical Path Forward

Chemical transparency will not advance at the same pace for every company or product. The practical objective is not indiscriminate material change. It is decision-quality information, a clear understanding of where chemicals of concern may be present, and a disciplined process for evaluating improvements without compromising safety or performance.

Manufacturers that begin now can respond more effectively as healthcare procurement expectations expand. They can also identify supply-chain gaps earlier, communicate with customers more credibly, and focus technical resources where a change is both meaningful and feasible.

Intertek supports manufacturers with chemical transparency programs, PFAS and VOC testing, product emissions evaluation, and sustainability certification. Engaging an independent expert early can help organizations select an appropriate framework, clarify data requirements, and build a program that reflects the realities of the product and its market.