New Trends of Banned and Restricted Chemicals

As the market demands more and more stringent requirements for the safety and health of human body and ecological environment protection, in recent years, new chemical substances in textile auxiliaries have been banned and restricted. In particular, in the terms of chemical restrictions proposed by major textile companies and textile sellers, it also reflects the current trend of the market and the new laws and regulations. There are several new developments.

1. The restriction of polyhalogen diphenyl and dioxin and polyhalogen and furan is more stringent

Polyhaline diphenyl and dioxin and polyhalogen dibenzofurans are two environmental hormones, they are extremely difficult to break down and biodegrade. In the environment, it is rich in lipid and high growth, and is known as the most toxic environmental pollutant. Its mutation and carcinogenicity is 10 times higher than the known carcinogen, aflatoxin. It is several times higher than 3,4- benzene and pyrene, nitrosamine and polychlorinated biphenyls.

They mainly produced in the AOX thermal decomposition or combustion, wood preservative Pentachlorophenol, some coatings additives when using chlorine phenol, halogen flame retardants, and some fluorescent whitening agent in the preparation of waste  liquid. Today, the market is divided into five groups according to their different toxic homologues, which stipulates stricter limits.

(1) limit of restriction -- -1 mu g/kg (total), it is mainly composed of four chlorines and five chlorinated polychlorodiphenyls and dioxin and polychlorodiphenyl and furan, including 2,3,7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzene and dioxin, 1,2,3,7, 8-pentachlorobenzene and dioxin, 2,3,7, 8-tetrachlorobenzene, furan, 2,3,4,7, 8-pentachlorodibenzofuran.

(2) limit of restriction -- -5 mu g/kg (total), the main one is PCBS with 6 chlorines and dioxin and polychlorodiphenyl and furan, including 1,2,3,4,7,8 - six of dioxins, diphenyl chloride and 1,2,3,7,8,9 - six of dioxins, diphenyl chloride and 1,2,3,6,7,8 - six of dioxins, diphenyl chloride and 1,2,3,4,7,8 - six chlorine two coumarone, 1,2,3,7,8,9 - six chlorine two coumarone, 1,2,3,6,7,8 - six chlorine two coumarone, 2,3,4,6,7,8 - six chlorine two coumarone.

(3) limit of restriction -- 100 mu g/kg (total), it is mainly composed of seven chlorines and eight chlorinated polychlorodibenzene and dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran, including 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 heptachlor,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 diphenyl and dioxins, 1-8 of dioxins, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 - diphenyl chloride and heptachlor coumarone, 1,2,3,4,7,8,9 heptachlor coumarone, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 - Octachlorodibenzofuran.

(4) limit of restriction -- 1 mu g/kg (total), it's mainly containing 4 bromine and 5 bromo diphenyl, and dioxin and pbdes and furan,
they include 2,3,7, 8-tetrabromodiphenyl, and dioxin, 1,2,3,7, 8-pentabromobenzene and dioxin, 2,3,7, 8-tetrabromobenzene, furan, 2,3,4,7, 8-pentabromobenzene and furan.

(5) limit the restriction -- -5 mu g/kg[(4) and (5) the total amount of the two groups], it's mainly containing 4, 5, 6 bromo diphenyl, and dioxin and pbdes and furan, including 2,3,7,8 tetrabromo - diphenyl and dioxins, as follows: 1,2,3,7,8 - five of dioxins, 2,3,7,8 - tetrabromo 2,3,4,7,8 coumarone and 2-5 bromine coumarone, as follows: 1,2,3,7,8 - five coumarone, as follows: 1,2,3,4,7,8 - six of dioxins, as follows: 1,2,3,7,8,9 - six of dioxins, as follows: 1,2,3,6,7,8 - six and dioxins. To sum up, in polyhalide diphenyl and in dioxin and polyhalogenated diphenyl and furan, there are four chlorines or four bromine homologues with the most toxicity, the more chlorine or bromine, the lower the toxicity.

2. Disable fluorinated greenhouse gases

It is widely believed that the increasing content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the main cause of the gradual increase in global temperature. According to the 2007 report of the United Nations research group on climate change, to limit the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to 450 by 10-6, the world would have to cut emissions by 50 to 80 percent. The most current release of CO2 is fossil fuel coal. VOC emissions are particularly high, and VOC emissions are one of the leading causes of global warming. Belong to a wide range of high VOC, the general under 8 carbons of aliphatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, ether, acetone, esters, amides, halogen compounds, unsaturated hydrocarbons and aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic compound, such as tetrahydrofuran, four hydrogen pyran, four hydrogen thiazole, methyl pyridine, methyl morpholine and so on all this. Fluoride greenhouse gases not only affect global temperature as a high VOC, and it would destroy the ozone layer, create holes, and accelerate the rise in global temperatures, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases must be banned.

Currently a banned fluoride greenhouse gas: (1) fluoride sulphide, such as the hexafluoride sulfur meter; (2) the hydrofluorocarbons, such as trifluoromethane, methylene fluoride, fluoride methane, ten fluorine pentane, five, four fluorine fluorine ethane ethane, 1 - fluoro - 2,2,2 - three fluorine ethane, two fluorine ethane, fluorine ethane, 2, 2-1 - fluoro - two seven fluorine fluorine ethane, propane, 2, 2-1 - fluoro - two fluorine - 3 filling - three fluorine propane, six fluorine propane, 1, 1-2-2 - fluoro - 3 filling - three fluorine propane, five fluorine propane, 1, 1-2-3 filling - three,1,1 fluorine propane, 1-3, 3-dimethylbutyraldehyde, fluoro - fluorine butane meter 17; (3) total fluorocarbon carbide, such as tetrafluoroethylene, hexafluoroethane, octeflon, difluorobutane, dodecane, tetrafluorohexane, and octafluane.

3. New restrictions on flame retardants

According to the requirements of Eco-label and Eco-Tex Standard 100, the organic synthetic flame retardant in the market is a problem that is harmful to human health and ecological environment. Recently, some textile companies have put forward the chemical limitation clauses to further refine and strict the commonly used flame retardants:

(1) the newly banned flame retardant has chlorinated paraffin (C10~ C13), pentabromodiphenyl ether (PBOPE) and octbr diphenyl ether (OBDPE);

(2) there are two (2, 3-dibromopropyl) phosphate that cannot be detected.

(3) new restrictions have been proposed for decabromodiphenyl ether.

Decabromodipheny (BBR) is the European Union that took 10 years to study the halogen flame retardants of 588 risk assessment projects. The conclusion is that there is no risk to human health, environmental pollution and no harm. However, the European Union clearly stated that the content of commercial decabromodiphenyl should be greater than 97.4 %, the content of 9 bromodiphenyl is less than 2.5%, the content of octa diphenyl and pentabromodiphenyl is not greater than 1, 000 mg/kg. But at the end of 2007, some major textile companies in Europe and the United States still proposed new restrictions on the diphenyl oxide.

The limit is 0.1 per cent (i.e., 1, 000 mg/kg).

4. Other new restrictions

(1) the organic tin compound restricts the new requirements, according to the requirements of eco-tex Standard 100, the organic tin compound on textiles refers only to DBT, TBT and TPhT. In addition to TBT, the content of the infant should be no more than 0.5 mg/kg and no more than 1 mg/kg. At present, a number of large textile companies have expanded the scope of the limited organic tin compounds. Besides DBT, TBT and TPhT, it also includes TCyHT, tri-sin-ketin (TOT), TPT, etc. Their content except that DBT still requires no more than 1 mg/kg, other requirements are not detected, the detection method is ethanol extraction, then GC/MS detection;

(2)DINP and DIDP were identified as safe without risk, DINP and DIDP are diisodecyl phthalate and diisodecyl phthalate. They are mainly used in textile, leather, toys, packaging, furniture, plastic and other phthalate plasticizers. After a lot of experimentation and long-term environmental tracking, in 2006, the European Union issued a statement confirming that the DINP and DIDP were risk-free for human health and the environment. In June 2007, the international toy industry association (ICTI) also issued a "DINP" security statement for children. In this case, the six phthalates, which were previously restricted to the European Union and eco-texstandard 100, could be reduced to four, that is  DEHP (2-ethylhexyl phthalate), DNOP (diorthoctyl phthalate), BBP (dibutyl benzyl butyl phthalate), DBP (dibutyl phthalate), the limit of each phthalate in textiles is 500 mg/kg, and the total amount is 1 000 mg/kg;

(3) new restrictions on asbestos fibre, the 2008 version of the Eco-TexStandard 100 increased the provision of asbestos fiber as a hazardous material and restricted it, this reflects the current market trend, some of the largest textile companies in the United States have also pointed out that they can't be detected in the form of asbestos, thousand rocks, magnesium silicate asbestos, transparent stone and so on.

(4) expanding the range of prohibited organic solvents, because some of the organic solvents are VOC and the other is AOX, they can harm human health and ecological environment. So the demand for undetected organic solvents is increasing, and it's stricter than Eco-Tex standard 100: (a) the new banned organic solvents include trichloroethylene, dimethylformamide, dimethyl acetamide, 2-ethoxyethanol, n-hexane, dichloromethane, etc. (b) the new cannot be detected organic solvents have pentachloroethane, carbon tetrachloride, say - tetrachloroethane, 1,1,2,2 tetrachloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, chloroform, 1,1,2 - trichloroethane, 1, 1-2,1,1 vinyl chloride, 1 - trichloroethane, etc.

Their detection method is the extraction of ethyl acetate and then the top analysis using GC/MS.

The epilogue

The safety requirement of textile auxiliaries is a necessary indicator for the selection of printing auxiliaries in the textile industry. In particular, the EU REACH law has been formally implemented, and the new chemical substances in the domestic and foreign markets that have been banned and restricted in textile auxiliaries are constantly being introduced. These are more stringent requirements for the safety of textile auxiliaries, reflecting the development trend and new laws of the current market, therefore, textile auxiliary production enterprises and textile enterprises must attach great importance to the healthy development of the two industries.