From now on, textiles with NPEO content exceeding 0.01% are prohibited from being placed on the EU market!
According to the EU official announcement of the amendment to the REACH regulations (EU) 2016/26, REACH Appendix XVII Article 46a stipulates that starting from February 3, 2021 Textiles with NPEO content exceeding 0.01% will be prohibited from being placed on the EU market.
Note that the specific terms are as shown in the table below:
1 From February 3, 2021, Textile products that need to be washed with water during their normal life cycle shall not be put on the market if the concentration is equal to or greater than 0.01% of the weight of the textile or each part of the textile.
2 Article 1 does not apply to the sale on the market of second-hand textiles or new textiles produced exclusively from recycled fabrics without the use of NPEO.
3 For the purposes of Clauses 1 and 2, “textiles” means any unfinished, semi-finished or finished product containing more than 80% by weight of textile fibers, or any other product containing at least 80% by weight of textile fiber components, such as clothing, accessories, interior textiles, fibers, yarns, fabrics and knitwear, etc.
Hazards of APEO:
The preparation of APEO is to combine alkylphenol (AP), mainly nonylphenol (NP) and octylphenol (OP), according to a certain ratio, under specific conditions, temperature, and pressure, through a polymerization reaction to generate a series of mixtures with different degrees of polymerization. APEO after polymerization mainly includes nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (NPEO) and octylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (OPEO). Among them, NPEO has the largest proportion, accounting for 80%-85%, and OPEO accounts for more than 15%.
APEO is stable in nature, degrades slowly in the environment, and easily aggregates to cause toxicity. Its degradation products are nonylphenol (NP), octylphenol (OP) and short-chain NPEO1 , NPEO2 and NPEO3 are more persistent and toxic in the environment. Some of their metabolites have environmental hormone-like properties and can easily disrupt the endocrine functions of wildlife and humans. Therefore, they have been banned and restricted by many countries and organizations.
Surfactants containing AP/APEOs are often used in dyeing and wet finishing processes. However, they have many hazards to the human body and the environment as follows:
•Can cause cancer
•Destroy the hormonal system
•Biodegradable and highly accumulative in aquatic ecosystems</p
