Dutch report on prioritisation of chemicals in textiles

13 May '15

2 min read

The Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has presented a report outlining a prioritisation method after the Dutch food and product safety authority requested it to develop a prioritisation method for substances used in textile production.

The method was presented in the report “Hazardous substances in textile products” (RIVM Report 2014-0155) for indicating high-priority substances registered under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals (REACH).

Substances considered in the prioritisation method for textiles are those registered in the European legislation REACH based on their hazardous characteristics. The prioritisation method is practical and based not only on the classification of the substances but also on additional aspects like the presence of the substance in the final textile article, its use during the production process of textiles, toxicity and estimated consumer exposure, RIVM said.

According to the report, this method identified 788 individual substances, 32 of which had the highest priority scores, and most substances with a high priority were dyes and flame retardants.

According to comments from the Ecological and Toxicological Association of Dyes and Organic Pigments Manufacturers (ETAD) and the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex), some recommendations should be considered to improve the prioritization method, including clarifying that the parameter of migration from the dyed textile should be indicated by different fastness values.

They also want the relevance of the identified substances for the textile and clothing industry to be considered and take into account the probability of the substance remaining in the finished textile after all processing steps.

RIVM is considering establishing a realistic exposure model to perform a risk assessment for hazardous substances in textiles and collecting substance specific information on the concentration and release from textile for further development and validation. (SH)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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