Kemi proposes a textiles-specific EU regulation

Recently, the Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemi) proposes an EU-wide regulation on hazardous substances in textiles, according to a report of the Swedish Government.

The report also says the Swedish Government should initiate the development of such regulation, which includes the list of category 1 carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR) substances, proposed for restriction by the European Commission, Echa and member state competent authorities in October. Besides, it should cover “identified textile-relevant substances” with hazardous properties, including substances which are endocrine-disrupting, allergenic and harmful to the environment as well as CMRs. Furthermore, Kemi also intends to introducing additional restrictions on azo dyes that not covered under REACH.

However, it has come to our notice that textiles-relevant regulations are fragmented at the EU level. For instance, some voluntary initiatives, such as the EU Ecolabel and the Oeko-tex standard for textiles, cover different substances and threshold values. So an EU regulation to impose uniform requirements on the hazardous substances in textiles is in need so as to standardise relevant information on the supply chain.

C&K Testing advises companies to pay close attention to the latest news for such regulation so as to deal with it promptly. As we all know, the enactment of an EU textiles-specific regulation can materially affect the export to the EU.

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