European "Oeko-Tek" textile standard gets tough on flame retardants

http://www.ecotextile.com/news_details.php?id=889

eko-Tex gets tough on flame retardants

ZURICH – [14.11.08] New criteria announced by the Oeko-Tex 100 standard has banned the use of two common types of fabric flame retardants and also tightened up on the use of certain phthalates in interior textiles and outerwear.

Included for the first time in the new test parameters are the commonly used brominated flame retardants decaBDE (decabromodiphenyl ether) and HBCDD (hexabromocyclododecane), which will be inventoried as banned under new Oeko-Tex 100 criteria.

The new revisions to the existing criteria will also control more tightly the use of phthalates in textiles. Phthalates have been used in the T-shirt printing business as a plasticizer for many years and are required to make PVC printed images soft and bendy especially if there are lots of colours layered onto the garment. Typically, this means in children’s wear, for example, where bright, garish large character prints are very common.

However, some phthalates have been classified as toxic by the EU and have been banned in clothing where there could be prolonged contact with the skin, especially in kids clothing. These include the use of the phthalates DEHP (di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate), BBP (butyl benzyl phthalate) and DBP (dibutyl phthalate). Now however, Oeko-Tex has restricted these same substances in outerwear and other textiles mainly because these are counted among the ‘Substances of Very High Concern’ (SVHC) on the official REACh-candidate list.

“In 2009 we will also restrict the use of these chemicals on product classes three and four which include textiles that do not come into direct contact with the skin as well as interior textiles,” Helmut Müller of Oeko-Tex confirmed to Ecotextile News.

Also new are the additional full disintegration of lead and cadmium within the framework of the Oeko-Tex heavy metals tests and the inclusion of perfluorooctane sulphonates (PFOS) and perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) in the criteria catalogue. This means that the Oeko-Tex 100 product standards go beyond the legal requirements for these substances.

Oeko-Tex is the largest product safety standard for textiles and this year alone it has issued 9,000 certificates. The International Oeko-Tex Association recently held its annual conference of directors of the Oeko-Tex member institutes from 41 countries in South Africa.