New international standards for textile environmental protection announced on April 1

　　Recently, the International Environmental Textile Association (Oeko-Tex Associationa) announced the 2014 Oeko-Tex Standard 100 eco-friendly textile testing standards and limited value, actively supporting and assisting global brands and retailers to achieve complete production throughout the production process by 2020. Eliminate harmful chemicals.

　　According to TESTEX, the official representative of the International Environmental Textile Association in China, compared with the 2013 version, no new test items have been added to the new version of the standard, but rather to individual projects. The scope of hazardous substances has been expanded and the limit value of specific substances has been tightened. Among them, all perfluorinated compounds examined by the International Environmental Textile Association are listed as a substance classification separately and are no longer classified as “other residual chemicals”. The test for alkylphenol ethoxylates will extend to the ethoxylate chain (1-20); at the same time, four long-chain perfluorochemicals will be added to the new standard inventory, with the same limits as perfluorooctanoic acid.

　　It is well known that perfluorinated compounds are often used for waterproofing, anti-oil finishing and coating treatment of textiles. Perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid in ionic perfluoro compounds are persistent pollutants and are difficult to be degraded. Bioaccumulation occurs in the human body and has reproductive toxicity. Nonylphenol is recognized as a toxic and harmful substance with persistence and bioaccumulation in the world. It has the effect of simulating natural estrogen, and its effects are often irreversible and can only be manifested after a long time. These harmful chemicals in textiles not only pose a potential threat to human health, but also discharge with textile wastewater during production, causing serious pollution to the environment (water and soil).

The standard update made by the International Environmental Textile Association at the beginning of each year is often recognized by domestic textile companies as a trade barrier, lest it should be avoided. But in fact, the association is standing on the shoulders of giants, trying to collect the latest research results of toxic and hazardous substances in the world, and after strict screening and identification by the expert group, it is the cause of health and environmental protection for the global textile industry and for all human beings. do one's best. Yan Si, customer service director of the company, said in an interview with this reporter that as a major textile production and exporting country, the textile industry should upgrade its research and innovation capabilities and shift from production and labor-intensive to technology-intensive as soon as possible. Become a textile powerhouse in the true sense.

　　According to Yan Wei, Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is the most authoritative and highly accepted eco-textile testing and certification standard in the world. In 2013, the International Environmental Textile Association issued 12,555 Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certificates worldwide. The geographical distribution of the certificate continued to shift towards the Asian market, with Asia accounting for 59.7% (compared with 59% in the previous year) and Europe accounting for 37.2% (compared with 38% in the previous year). The countries with the highest certificate holding rates are China, Germany, Turkey, India, Bangladesh and Italy. It is not difficult to see that Chinese companies still have obvious advantages and strong stamina in the competition for international market share.

　　As the global industry's attention to the safety and environmental protection of textile consumption continues to increase, environmental textile certification and other work will continue to heat up. Since the Oeko-Tex standard covers all the global textile requirements, Target, Walmart and other large international buyers have included Oeko-Tex environmental textile standards in their procurement standards. In this regard, Tesda recommends domestic textile production enterprises to establish a sound chemical management and control system, strengthen the exchange and interoperability of the supply chain, start with raw materials, strictly control the procurement links, and eliminate the emergence of prohibited and restricted substances from the source.

　　It is reported that the new version of the standard and the limited value enjoy a three-month transition period, which will take effect on April 1, 2014.