Recently, the "drug clothing door" incident caused an uproar. The International Environmental Protection Organization Greenpeace issued two consecutive investigation reports in July and August. It stated that the clothing samples of many well-known apparel brands such as Adidas, Nike, and Li Ning, as well as the waste water discharged from these brands of Chinese processing plants, detected toxic and hazardous substances. NPE.
According to the organization's introduction, NPE Chinese name is nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether. NPE itself has low toxicity, and its greatest danger is that the discharge into the water will quickly decompose into more toxic NP - nonylphenol. Nonylphenol is a world-recognized environmental hormone, which can simulate estrogen, affect the biological development of organisms, and interfere with the endocrine of organisms, leading to reproductive disorders.
What caused this uproar in the NPE? How does it flow into the production chain of those famous brands? The reporter conducted an investigation in the industry.
Brand-name products involved in "poison"
In July and August, Greenpeace successively released two reports: "China's Water Pollution Survey for Global Apparel Brands" and "Survey of Toxic and Harmful Substances in Global Brand Clothing". The most compelling content of the two reports was the investigation of two domestic processing plants of famous brands such as Adidas, Nike and Li Ning: Youngor Textile Industrial City in the Yangtze River Delta and Zhongshan Guotai Dyeing and Finishing Co., Ltd. in the Pearl River Delta. The wastewater discharged by both companies contains the environmental hormone NP.
The report also investigated 78 samples of 15 well-known clothing brands, including sportswear, casual wear and footwear, which were purchased in 18 countries including China, the United Kingdom, and Argentina. The areas of production involved China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc. Developing countries. As a result, 14 out of the 15 clothing brands were found to be problematic; 52 of the 78 samples sampled had NPE remaining on the sample.
Zhang Kai, director of the Greenpeace Pollution and Prevention Program, pointed out that research shows that NP, a kind of environmental hormones, is extremely harmful even if its concentration is low. Because it is persistent and bioaccumulative. In other words, once it is discharged into the environment, it will exist for a long time, and it can enter the food chain and be enlarged step by step through the food chain. Once it enters the body, it will affect the normal reproduction and development of the organism. Through the transmission of the food chain, it can eventually lead to a reduction in the number of spermatozoa and abnormal reproductive organs in human males.
Professor Chen Rongji, a member of the expert advisory group of the China Dyestuff Industry Association, confirmed this to reporters. He said that the poisoning of NP on the human body is conducted through the food chain, that is, textile and garment companies use NPE in the production process, and then enter the environment as the discharged wastewater enters the environment. At the same time, consumers may also put NPE on clothing during the laundry process. Discharged into the water, eventually into the river to decompose into the environmental hormone NP. NPs can accumulate in the tissues of fish and other organisms and enter the human body through the food chain. In recent years, studies have shown that NP is found in humans.
Printing and dyeing auxiliaries are the culprit NPE from the textile and clothing industry which part?
Wang Xiaoning, a teacher at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Beijing Institute of Clothing and Clothing, said that garments involved in “poisoning†are mainly due to the large amount of chemicals used in the production and processing of textiles. Printing and dyeing auxiliaries and dyes are the most used chemicals in the textile manufacturing process, and NPE is one of the main raw materials commonly used for printing and dyeing auxiliaries.
Chen Rongji told reporters that NPE is a surfactant and its main use is for washing products and textile auxiliaries. NPE is almost ubiquitous in the textile processing process. The scouring agents, wetting agents, penetrants, enzyme preparations, printing pastes, adhesives, coating agents, leveling agents, waterproofing agents, repairing agents, and various NPE may be found in dyeing auxiliaries such as emulsions and dispersants. Moreover, NPE is used in textile auxiliaries to achieve a predetermined function through physical processes, and the chemical structure is not affected. Therefore, after the function is completed, it will be discharged into the water “originallyâ€.
Liu Jinhua, a senior manager of Guangdong Demei Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd., said that there are many types of auxiliaries for printing and dyeing, and a piece of clothing generally uses twenty to thirty printing and dyeing auxiliaries. Some of these auxiliaries are used in textile pre-finishing processes, such as dye-assisted dyeing, in order to dye more firmly, evenly and vividly. The printing and dyeing auxiliaries of these processes will be finally washed off during the processing of textiles. If they are not washed clean, there will be residue on the textile and clothing products. There are also some printing and dyeing auxiliaries used in the post-finishing process, that is, after dyeing, some functional effects such as softness, stiffness, fluffing, and smoothness are added. These functional printing and dyeing auxiliaries will adhere to textiles. Clothing products, factory sales.
"NPE is the most widely used textile auxiliaries as a pretreatment process for textiles. These processes are carried out in water. NPE is discharged during the printing process, but it is also used in finishing processes, such as The softening of textiles, the emulsion used in the softening process may contain NPE, and the softening and finishing is the final step, and the drying process becomes a textile product, so that the NPE adheres to the garment, but it is not solid enough to be washed in the consumer. The clothes will dissolve in the water and will eventually be discharged into the environment,†explains Chen Rongzhen.
The origin of double standards According to Chen Zhihua, secretary-general of the China Printing and Dyeing Industry Association, the EU has banned these two types of substances in view of the harmful effects of NPE and NP on the human body and the environment. The United States also stipulates that NPE and NP be completely banned by 2014. In January 2011, the Chinese government also listed NPEs and NPs for the first time in the Catalogue of China's Strict Imports and Exports of Toxic Chemicals.
However, China does not have any explicit regulations on whether domestic printing and dyeing companies can use NPE and NP.
Luo Jutao, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Chuanhua Co., Ltd., said that at present, there are already many mature products in the country that can replace NPE. There are no problems with the technology and products, such as fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ethers, alkyl polyglycosides, dehydrated sorbitol series. Surfactants, etc. However, the price of these alternatives is much higher than that of NPE. And NPE's performance is also better. Because of price and performance reasons, NPE has a large market in China.
Foreign prohibition and domestic can not help, coupled with the use of NPE can also reduce costs, so the domestic apparel industry chain appeared double standards.
“The textile companies exporting products to the European Union have very strict control on the additives, because once the products are rejected, the losses are very large. I have visited many textile companies and put two products in the warehouse, one is NPE-free. It is to export to Europe and the United States; one is containing NPE, mainly domestic sales." Chen Rongzhen said.
Liu Jinhua confirmed that the current requirement for auxiliaries to issue third-party inspections to prove that downstream manufacturers that do not contain NPE are mostly products that are exported to Europe and the United States, and that downstream manufacturers that sell only in China do not have such requirements.
Du Shenghong, deputy general manager of Suzhou Liansheng Chemical Co., Ltd., also stated that many domestic auxiliaries manufacturers have two production lines. One is the production of auxiliaries containing NPE and the other is the production of auxiliaries without NPE. If the downstream printing and dyeing companies expressly propose that the auxiliaries can not contain NPE, then the auxiliaries will produce auxiliaries that do not contain NPE. However, if the printing and dyeing companies do not make clear requirements, the auxiliaries provided by the auxiliaries include NPE. Possible.
The reporter also learned that the use of NPE is gradually decreasing on a global scale, but in China, its usage is still increasing. Chen Rongqi told reporters that NPE is still in mass production in China and its production ranks first in the world. In 2005, the output of China's NPE was 400,000 to 500,000 tons. Now that production is no longer public because of the EU's ban, it is estimated that the output will not fall below the 2005 figure.
No standard expert in China has pointed out that the implementation of double standards in the textile industry chain has brought about significant harm to the country. But we can't blame the company again, because the key is that the country does not have corresponding standards.
Chen Rongxi said that as a major producer of the textile and garment industry, China is much more threatened by NPE than Europe and the United States, but China has no explicit regulations on the use and control of NPE in the textile industry. “In 2009, China introduced laws and regulations prohibiting the use of NPE in detergents, but there are no restrictions on the use of textiles. China's mandatory requirements on textiles GB18401-2003 "National Safety Technical Code for Textile Products" did not make for NPE It is stipulated that there will be no relevant regulations for the revised new standard GB18401-2010 that will be implemented next year."
Huang Xianhai, a professor at the Zhejiang University’s School of Economics, pointed out that since the country has not introduced standards, it is difficult for companies to make improvements immediately. Although there are still differences in the level of economic development at home and abroad, in the long run, the convergence of international standards is still a general trend. Especially in areas where food safety, ecological health, etc. directly involve personal safety, the pace of regulatory standards should be accelerated.
In addition, the reporter also learned that the current domestic textile auxiliaries standards seriously lag behind. At present, most of the quality indicators of domestic textile auxiliaries are only conventional and general indicators, lack of characteristic indicators, and no detection techniques and methods for physical indicators. Indicators of chemical substances harmful to the human body and the environment that are of concern in the international market, such as Germany's Eco-Tex Standard 100, the EU's Eco-label, the US's RSL, and other banned and restricted chemicals in the regulations and technical standards, The standard of the agent is not only incomplete, but also not at all.
Zhang Jie, a consultant of the China Dyestuff Industry Association, pointed out that the backwardness of domestic auxiliaries standards is closely related to the technical level of China's auxiliary industry in addition to the concept. For a long time, most of the additives in our country have been imitated. The pursuit is that the application performance of the final additive is the same as or similar to that of foreign counterparts, and the toxicity generated in the process is neither detected nor clear. In fact, due to the differences in the raw materials and additives used, the synthetic routes chosen, and the technical conditions for control, the ingredients contained in the final auxiliaries will be very different, and this is what determines their toxicological indicators and ecotoxicity. The key factor of the indicator. Unfortunately, so far, many auxiliaries manufacturers in China are simply not sure what substances they contain in their auxiliaries.
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