The Netherlands Presents Report on Prioritization of Chemicals in Textile Production

May 12, 2015 - PRLog -- Report Outlines Prioritization Method

The Dutch food and product safety authority requested the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) to develop a prioritization method for substances used in textile production (1). The method was presented in the report “Hazardous substances in textile products” (RIVM Report 2014-0155) (2) for indicating high-priority substances registered under REACH.

Substances considered in the prioritization method for textiles are those registered in the European legislation REACH based on their hazardous characteristics. The prioritization 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. 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.

Table 1 within the latest SGS SafeGuards bulletin (http://newsletter.sgs.com/eNewsletterPro/uploadedimages/0...) provides an overview of all extracted substances with the highest priority scores from RIVM Report 2014-0155.

Suggested Improvements to the RIVM Report

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.

- Considering the relevance of the identified substances for the textile and clothing industry.

- Considering the probability of the substance remaining in the finished textile after all processing steps.

Apart from the comments, 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 textiles for further development and validation.

References:

1. RIVM Risk Assessment Release (http://www.rivm.nl/en/Documents_and_publications/Common_and_Present/Newsmessages/2015/Risk_assessment_of_dyes_and_flame_retardants_there%E2%80%99s_room_for_improvement)

2. RIVM Report 2014-0155 (http://www.rivm.nl/en/Documents_and_publications/Scientific/Reports/2015/februari/Hazardous_substances_in_textile_products)

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