Textile And Leather Products Export To EU Will Be Restricted By PFOS Directive

Recently, the Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau issued an urgent risk warning: the EU Directive on restricting the sale and use of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS directive) will come into effect on June 27, 2008.

According to the directive, the content of PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) in the finished products sold on the European market should not exceed 0.005% of the total quality.

This marks a formal ban on the use of PFOS in commodities by the European Union. The exporters of textile and leather products will be the first to be affected.

According to the responsible person of the Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau, PFOS is especially widely used in textile industry. Any textile that needs printing and dyeing and finishing needs to be washed before processing. In addition, the additives used for functional finishing such as UV and antibacterial also contain PFOS.

Textile and clothing are one of the main export products of our province.

According to customs statistics, in 2007, we exported 2 billion 430 million US dollars of textiles and clothing, of which US $570 million was exported to the European Union, an increase of 21.3% over the previous year.

The implementation of this directive will directly affect the export of textiles, leather, paper, packaging, dyeing auxiliaries, cosmetics and other products in our province.

According to the sampling survey conducted by the quality supervision department, most export enterprises in our province still do not know the PFOS directive, and even do not know whether their products contain PFOS components.

And the EU PFOS directive covers a very wide range. The impact on China's foreign trade will be far greater than other previous green barriers or trade frictions. It is necessary to make early preparations for the export enterprises of our province.

In response to the EU PFOS directive, the Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau has proposed that there are already more ideal substitutes in the world. However, China has not yet developed a textile auxiliaries that can fully meet the EU's PFOS control standards.

The relevant export enterprises in our province should communicate with the European importers as soon as possible, and intensify the selection, testing and application of alternative products, so as to reduce the losses caused by the implementation of the directive.

facts on file

PFOS is the main active ingredient of antifouling agents for textiles and leather products. It is widely used in the field of civil and industrial products. It is the most difficult to degrade organic pollutants at present. It has high bioaccumulation and toxicity. It will not only create problems of respiratory system, but also lead to the death of new born babies. The global pollution caused by it is attracting more and more attention.