SCA proposes restrictions on hazardous textile chemicals

21 Aug '13

5 min read

As regards the option of introducing environmental taxation, the Agency had previously indicated that it had been drafting a proposal for a national framework for taxation on consumer products which would contain some specific chemical groups, the first step being the taxation of clothes and shoes.

This option, the Agency noted, could be used not only for clothes but for all types of textiles that are deemed relevant from a hazardous and/or risk perspective, e.g., fire fighters’ clothing or textile products for furniture. However, the Agency has now pointed out that environmental taxes are today only an option at the national level, and that the market players concerned could in any event choose to pay the tax instead of reducing the chemical content in textile products.

This option would therefore not impose strict limits on the use of hazardous chemicals in textiles. It has therefore been disqualified from further assessment within the current assignment. Nonetheless, the Agency stresses that environmental taxation of textiles will remain an option for Sweden.

In its proposal, the Agency has suggested that hazardous chemicals which can be found in finished textile products should be regulated at three different levels, namely: (i) regulation without any exemption; (ii) regulation with limited exemptions; and (iii) procedure for including other substances or groups of substances and for lowering the maximum allowed concentration level.

More specifically, the SCA proposes that textile products must be prohibited from containing substances classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction, or hazardous to the environment. This prohibition should, according to the proposal, also apply to chemical substances in textile clothing that are classified as respiratory and skin sensitizing. Finally, the SCA proposes to include a list of derogations to be applied on a case-by-case basis, however without further specifying what could be covered by these derogations.

The Swedish Chemicals Agency report will likely prove to be of particular interest to law makers in Brussels. Should this indeed be the case, the European Commission could eventually propose restrictions along the same lines as suggested by the Agency, for application EU-wide.

HKTDC