The rubber industry faces increasingly stringent requirements for the control of nitrosamines, whilst environmentalists probe ever deeper seemingly to find these carcinogens almost anywhere. In accepting that nitrosamines can be by-products of its manufacturing chemistry, the rubber industry has already started to address the possibilities for reformulation. However, the nitrosamine problem has refused to go away and the factors influencing nitrosamine formation remain obscure.

This review document consists of two parts. The first is a review of the published information about the formation of nitrosamines in vulcanisates and also legislative and environmental considerations. The second part is a summary of the collaborative study carried out at Rapra.