Kortlægning af kemiske stoffer i tekstiler - Miljøstyrelsen

Summary and conclusions
Background and purpose
In the autumn 2011, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency plans to
run a large information campaign on chemicals in clothes and other textiles
which the consumer is in contact with. The purpose of the campaign is to
inform the consumers about environment and health aspects in connection
with textiles.
In this connection, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency wanted a
total overview of chemicals which might be/are found in textiles and clothes
sold in Denmark today, including textiles and clothes produced both within
and outside the EU. Therefore, this project is going to be the basis of the
planned information campaign in the autumn 2011.
The purpose of this project has primarily been to try to describe the following
overall subjects mentioned below:
Production of textiles outside the EU
Eco- and health labels on the Danish market
Chemicals which are found in clothes/textiles
Chemicals which can be washed out of clothes/textiles
Case: Water consumption and consumption of chemicals for
production of a conventional T-shirt and an eco-labelled T-shirt
The investigation
This project ”Survey of chemical substances in textiles” is exclusively carried
out as a desk-top study, i.e. a search and a going through of existing material.
The project was carried out by employees from the Department for Applied
Environmental Assessment, FORCE Technology.
Main conclusions
The main conclusions of the project are:
The main part of the imported clothes/textiles to Denmark comes
from the East.
Clothes/textiles can contain a long range of dangerous chemicals in
small or larger amounts. The chemicals residues are caused by the
large use of chemicals in the production of the textiles.
Many of the chemicals can, however, be washed out of the textiles
when washed in the washing machine.
Especially phthalates, some heavy metals, and antibacterial agents are
not washed out of the textiles during wash. However, phthalates and
to some degree also the heavy metals can be avoided by buying ecolabelled
or health-labelled textiles.
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