Toxicology of Industrial Compounds

22
Toxicology of Textile Chemicals
DIETER SEDLAK
EnviroTex GmbH, Augsburg
The former main aspects of textiles like fashion or usefulness seem to be
pushed back by a new phenomenon, the ecological and toxicological aspect
of textiles. Although everybody is talking about textiles in this context,
everybody means the textile chemicals (and dye-stuffs) on the textile. With
respect to this situation we have to consider new developments in Germany
(Figure 22.1).
For two years now textile finishing plants have to be approved within
the German federal immission control act. This means that all sorts of
immissions to the working place or the surroundings of the plant must be
defined in quantity and quality. In the meantime so-called emission factors
have been developed. But this project is not yet finished. Even for insiders
it was surprising how many textile chemicals show unexpected behaviour
during their application. The reasons are:
– unknown byproducts or impurities,
– unknown reactivities between components,
– unknown interactions with substrate,
– unknown dependencies of process parameters.
Today producers and users realise that the inherent toxicological properties
of many textile chemicals evaluated within a typical safety data sheet
represent only a part of the whole knowledge you need for safe handling
and processing.
A further interesting development undoubtedly is the discussion around
the ecolabelling of textiles. There definitely is some danger so that different
labels based on different commercial interests should be evaluated. A
positive step could be the fact that MST and Ecotex have joined. But other
societies like TÜV or GSF create their own labels including statements that
they use the better (right) label criteria. This leads quite clearly to total
confusion for the consumer. However, what the textile industry needs
today is confidence. The developments discussed above will not help. From
a technical point of view we have the same problem as discussed with
respect to the immissions. Too little is known about the real properties and