PFOS Is Coming: Leather Enterprises Are "Not Panic."

News tip: since June 27th this year, the PFOS content in the finished products sold in the EU market can not exceed 0.1% of the total quality, and the content of semi-finished products should not exceed 0.05%. PFOS, a new technical barrier, has hit China's textiles and leather industry.

However, reporters understand that most domestic leather enterprises do not know what PFOS is, and experts say that although not all leather products contain PFOS, enterprises should pay attention to the source of the new barriers and start from raw materials.

PFOS Chinese is known as perfluorooctane sulfonyl compound, and it is widely used in textiles and leather products.

Since June 27th this year, the European Union has limited the PFOS content in the finished products sold on the market, which has become another technical barrier to China's export of textiles and leather products to the European Union.

Some leather products or "PFOS" have been investigated from several relatively large leather production and export enterprises in China. At present, domestic enterprises do not know what PFOS is, nor do they do any relevant tests or tests.

The remarks made by the people concerned in the leather branch of China food, animal and meat import and export association did not surprise the reporters. Before that, the reporter called the relevant people of China Leather Association, and he also did not know what PFOS was.

PFOS technical barriers refer to the 2006 / 122 / EC directive issued by the European Union at the end of 2006, namely, "laws, regulations and regulations governing the sale and use of certain hazardous substances and products by all Member States," which limits the content of PFOS in European Union products.

The directive stipulates that the PFOS content of the finished products sold in the EU market from June 27th this year can not exceed 0.1% of the total quality, and the content of semi-finished products should not exceed 0.05%.

At present, PFOS has been used in textile, carpet, leather shoes, paper making, packaging, printing and dyeing, washing, cosmetics, pesticides, fire fighting agents and hydraulic oil manufacturing, which is the most widely used in textile industry, followed by leather industry.

According to statistics, last year, the export of leather bags in China amounted to 1 billion 530 million dollars, leather garments exported 34 million 180 thousand pieces, 1 billion 290 million dollars, leather shoes exported 1 billion 300 million pairs, and the amount was 9 billion 560 million dollars; the EU was the largest or main export market for all kinds of products.

The implementation of the PFOS directive has become another major technical barrier to the export of textiles and leather products to the European Union.

"The reason why the domestic leather industry does not attach much importance to this new directive is that not all leather products contain PFOS," Zhao Liguo, Secretary General of the National Leather Industry Standardization Technical Committee, told reporters. "Generally only when leather products are required to achieve certain performance, such as waterproofing, oil proofing and antifouling, will they consider adding PFOS to the production process."

From a professional technical point of view, he admitted that the current domestic production enterprises are running on demand, and the product quality standards are all in accordance with the requirements of customers. Therefore, only when the specific requirements of foreign customers are followed, will a certain directive be observed, and enterprises seldom take the initiative to understand the instructions and standards abroad.

Experts warned that we should not despise the enemy. "From our current test data statistics, the vast majority of textile and leather products exported to Tianjin can meet the requirements of the new EU directive."

Tianjin inspection and Quarantine Bureau of industrial products safety technology center experts said.

He said that at present, China's textile and leather products manufacturing enterprises have not noticed the use of PFOS in the production process. PFOS is a surfactant, it will be added to the finishing agent and dyestuffs of textile and leather products as additives, instead of directly used in the production of textile and leather products, and the formula of finishing agents and dyestuffs are generally confidential. The names and contents of the components will not be indicated in the instructions, so the domestic textile and leather production enterprises may be misused in the production process.

"PFOS as a surfactant, mainly plays a dispersive role, mainly used in waterproof and oil resistant leather and textile materials."

In the interview, the reporter learned that, after receiving the information about the 2006/122/EC directive in 2006, the industrial products safety and technology center of Tianjin inspection and Quarantine Bureau actively organized the backbone of science and technology to carry out research and research, and set up a PFOS working group composed of several Ph.D. and master's degree.

After more than a year's efforts, we have completed the AQSIQ's "detection technology and safety evaluation technology of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and its derivatives in packaging materials", and the research of the Tianjin Bureau's "Research on the detection and safety evaluation of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in textiles". The two conclusions reached the international leading level, and the draft two national standards of "perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) detection in textiles -- liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry / mass spectrometry" and "perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) detection in textiles" - GC / MS have been approved and implemented nationwide.

At present, the Tianjin inspection and Quarantine Bureau's industrial product safety technology center has accepted 31 applications for PFOS inspection and issued a test report, which provides scientific and effective technical support for Tianjin's smooth export to the European Union.

"Now, there is no export business in Tianjin that has been returned to the EU because of PFOS exceeding the standard."

The center expert told reporters.

He believes that, because most of the domestic textile and leather production enterprises do not have specialized legal advisory departments, they do not collect and understand the EU directive; moreover, even though some enterprises know this directive, they have been waiting to see what specific measures the EU and our government agencies and trade associations have.

"But from the existing testing data, some manufacturers' test results still exceed the EU's limited requirements."

Enterprises should be traced to the source. "What is worth noticing now is that many enterprises do not add PFOS when making leather into finished products, but it is not known whether PFOS is contained in raw leather."

Tianjin inspection and Quarantine Bureau Industrial Product Safety Technology Center experts said that early attention, early study, early action, if the raw material composition of the enterprise is uncertain, you can ask the raw material supplier to do the relevant testing. If you confirm that the raw material contains PFOS, you can choose the substitute properly. If you have to use it, you will have to meet the new EU directive requirements to cross the barrier.

He further indicated that the preliminary technical reserves of the PFOS working group of the industrial products safety technology center of the Tianjin inspection and Quarantine Bureau laid a solid foundation for the Tianjin inspection and Quarantine Bureau to promptly respond to the EU's full implementation of the PFOS limit and provide technical support for law enforcement checks. The center has already worked with some export enterprises to provide technical advice and services to enterprises, and assist enterprises in the implementation of PFOS testing in all aspects of raw material procurement, production process control, and finished products leaving factories, and put forward some rationalization proposals and improvement measures for enterprises.