Children'S Shoes -- Another Potential Culprit To Destroy The Environment?

December 28th, when children enter the age of "terrible two-year-old", they are always unable to chew up their shoes.

Therefore, Ms Ling worried that when her son began to chew on his shoes, he would accidentally take in toxic substances and damage his health.

She was also worried that her son's shoes might be jammed by the mechanical device of the elevator and seriously hurt his little feet.

More recently, news reports about the involvement of children in shoes by elevator devices have added to her concerns.

In one of the accidents, a child's toes were seriously injured.

MS Ling worries that even the simple functions of protecting her toes are not enough for her son to wear.

The metabolic system of children is still developing, and their bodies do not yet have the effective detoxification function of adults.

Therefore, children are more likely to be exposed to harmful substances and cause health damage.

MS Ling's worries are not worrying.

However, many parents neglect children.

Although aware of the potential dangers of chemicals in footwear products, most parents focus on children's shoes in terms of color, design, children's love for shoes, fit and price.

They rarely pay attention to and consider other key issues, such as shoes production, production, shoe making.

There are many kinds of children's shoes.

From casual shoes, leather shoes, sandals, slippers to rain boots, these children's shoes are made of different materials and colorful.

At the same time, printing, post processing and lacquer make them look more attractive and use more widely.

However, in its production process, many harmful chemicals may be used to deal with these children's shoes.

For example, leather shoes or plastic shoes may be added to special chemicals during the production process, so that the raw materials have special properties, such as improving the color and brightness, or increasing the waterproof performance.

Of course, children's shoes may also be treated with antibacterial agents or adhesives.

These adhesives include plasticizers and solvents. Children may have dizziness or paralysis when taking these substances.

These solvents may also cause skin allergies, such as eczema.

When children put on these children's shoes, the danger is coming. The chemicals contained in shoes may damage their skin and even invade their young bodies.

Taking the leather making process in the production of children's shoes as an example, formaldehyde is often used to improve the water absorption of leather, and formaldehyde is carcinogenic and susceptible to allergies.

According to the Swedish Nature Conservation Association (SSNC), formaldehyde may remain in raw materials even after shoemaking is completed.

Formaldehyde can stimulate children's skin and may cause severe dermatitis (2).

Another harmful chemical, two methyl fumarate (DMF), is often used by leather manufacturers to prevent shoes from being mildew in high temperature and humidity during storage.

It has been proved that even at extremely low concentrations, the substance can cause allergic reactions, which can lead to large areas of severe eczema and difficult to cure (3).

The Swedish Natural Protection Association (SSNC) report contains tests to confirm the presence of harmful chemicals in leather shoes and plastic shoes.

These harmful chemicals include ortho benzene two formate, extractable heavy metals and organotin compounds.

The test results set a wake-up call for consumers: plastic shoes contain o-phenyl two formic acid two (2- ethylhexyl) ester in o-benzoic acid and formic acid, which can be used as a plastic softener of harmful chemicals that can cause cancer, causing fertility problems, liver failure and skin allergy.

Harmful chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), extractable heavy metals and banned azo dyes were also detected during the raising of chroma.

Many children's shoes contain polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Although this material gradually causes footwear manufacturers to have a headache, they are still in general use, for fear of avoiding it, especially for producing rain boots, beach slippers, and other lacquer shoes or plastic shoes.

In addition, PVC is also widely used to print all kinds of logo and cartoon character patterns on slippers.

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Children's shoes -- another potential culprit to destroy the environment?

The waste shoes in landfill can release harmful chemicals, pollute the soil and groundwater.

When leather shoes or plastic shoes containing harmful chemicals and various concentrations of extractable heavy metals and other toxic substances are worn out or discarded, these substances will spread to the environment.

Although some harmful or toxic substances have no direct effect on children or adults, they can cause long-term adverse effects on the environment and cause human health risks.

Discarded shoes are burned if they are not buried in landfills.

In either case, the heavy metals contained in these shoes will eventually release and pollute the soil and even groundwater.

Some leather shoes contain residual trivalent chromium, which can be oxidized to highly toxic and highly toxic six valent chromium, which pollutes the air we live on (4).

This means that even if children are not affected by harmful substances when they are wearing these shoes, they may be virtually injured because they are at the bottom of the consumer chain.

Supervision needs to be strengthened to ensure footwear safety.

Market demand statistics show that in 2008, the global footwear retail market sales amounted to 190 billion US dollars (5), of which only the EU shoe industry accounted for more than 49 billion euros share (6).

However, although the demand for footwear is booming and growing, there are no detailed legislation or regulations to monitor the chemical components contained in footwear and other substances and processes that may be involved in the process of shoemaking.

However, the European Union bill "chemicals registration, assessment, licensing and restriction" (REACH regulation) has played a great role in the regulation of licensing or prohibiting the use of certain harmful chemicals in footwear production.

Noxious chemicals proven to be carcinogenic or highly susceptible to allergies have been included in the REACH list of high attention substances (SVHC) to help footwear manufacturers identify and disable these high attention substances (SVHC).

At the same time, punitive measures implemented without strict compliance with the provisions in these guiding regulations will help guide the "misguided" footwear manufacturers to help them supervise the production and manufacturing process of their shoe products more carefully.

The process of globalization has broken the boundaries of countries, and has closely linked producers, buyers and retailers, and supply chain management has become stricter.

Some chemicals and toxic substances that are harmful to the environment, though prohibited in one country, may still spread to the entire value chain due to negligence and lack of proper supervision, making children in consumer countries face great risks when they wear these shoes.

Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of supply chain and the safety of children's shoes, footwear designers, manufacturers and other stakeholders need to pay more and more attention to these potential risks and take timely actions.

At present, if manufacturers and retailers continue to raise awareness of potential chemicals in leather shoes and plastic shoes, it will help reduce the risk of harmful chemicals to children.

Parents can also play a vital role in reducing the safety risks of children. On the one hand, they can choose to buy shoes that contain no chemical problems, and on the other hand, they can choose the real well-known brands with rigorous and meticulous work.

Many well-known brands have begun to strengthen supervision.

In recent years, the market of children's shoes has been developing vigorously.

Technology and innovation gradually penetrate into the design concept of children's shoes, making all kinds of leather shoes, sandals, slippers and boots like diamonds, shining brightly in the dark. Some shoes are equipped with pulleys at the bottom, for skating, some shoes have the function of automatic shoelace, and some shoes color and accessories are specially tailored to suit different occasions.

Under this trend, many well-known children's shoe brands gradually recognize the needs of parents for children's shoes. They are eager to design more perfect, non toxic children's shoes to ensure children's safety and environmental safety.

For example, Timulan, a well-known footwear brand (Timberland), minimizes the chemical content (7) of shoes produced by minimizing the amount of solvent used in the process of shoe adhesion.

As part of the company's "green index" project, the company only uses materials that can be integrated with water-based adhesives.

In addition, the company abandoned the solvent based adhesive process and adopted an alternative approach to environmental protection.

Nike also implemented a zero waste and zero poison project to remove or limit the content of toxic substances that may be involved in the production and packaging of its products (8).

Other popular children's shoes brands such as IsaBooties, Babypaws, DaisyRoots and SoftStar also start to avoid formaldehyde and chromium in tanning process.

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Who should be responsible for quality and safety?

Lei Jiawen (RaymondLui), a senior chemist in the international testing and Certification Department of TUV Deutsche group, answers questions about how manufacturers and retailers adopt strict testing methods to ensure that the shoes produced do not harm children's personal safety.

Why is the detection of shoes products imminent? Where is its special place?

Shoe product testing will take into account two key aspects of children's shoes: protection for children and durability of shoes.

Chemical testing plays a vital role in ensuring that the chemicals that are used to enhance the appearance of children's shoes, enhance their applicability and increase their attractiveness are harmless to children, and the shoe making process is harmless to the ecosystem.

On the other hand, various physical performance tests and mechanical performance tests for color fastness, tortuous resistance, friction resistance, water repellency and fatigue resistance of the heel will also play an essential role in ensuring the durability of everyday shoes.

What are the regulations that footwear manufacturers should follow?

The EU REACH regulations clearly stipulate relevant problems in the detection of harmful chemicals.

The US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) helps the US market regulate lead content and enhance the detection of dangerous parts with sharp edges.

There are various non mandatory ISO standards and ASTM standards for manufacturers to comply with all kinds of testing for physical and mechanical properties.

By testing footwear products in strict accordance with these standards, footwear manufacturers will keep pace with the times, keep pace with the frequent changes in the regulatory environment, and also meet the growing expectations of parents for safety and quality.

In addition to protecting the interests and safety of children and parents, this initiative can also be used to ensure the quality of footwear products put into the market.

Enhance parents' confidence in toddler shoes

With the improvement of the risk management complexity of children's shoes, manufacturers need to work together with a single resource industry detection professional organization.

And TUV South German group is such an ideal professional organization, will greatly help children's shoes manufacturers find the way to ensure footwear safety from design to sales.

For example, TUV South Deutsche group provides a wide range of chemical products testing programs designed to help designers and manufacturers deepen their understanding of toxic substances and improve their sensitivity and alertness to chemicals in footwear products.

In addition, the professional body also provides various physical performance tests to detect footwear's color fastness, tensile strength, tear strength, joint strength, and resistance to twists and rubbing.

All the footwear products that are unique to the TUV Deutsche group footwear show their sense of responsibility and commitment to ensure the safety of children and environmental safety when making shoes.

The pre-trial process of the logo not only includes the relevant regulations of the United States and the European Union, but also covers the detection of harmful substances which are blacklisted by most of the major retailers, so as to enhance the ability of products to enter the market.

Parents can also help themselves make informed decisions when buying children's shoes according to the comprehensive testing and guidance regulations of the logo.

Security is not absolute -- vigilance is still essential.

No matter how fashionable the new design, new pattern, and improvement of footwear are, these shoes may pose health and safety risks to their children.

International regulations on the structure and chemical substances of footwear products have gradually been legalized and standardized. However, the standards for monitoring footwear health and safety have not yet been implemented in a comprehensive scale.

At present, as footwear designers and manufacturers do their best to make continuous efforts to manage their internal quality level, parents represented by Lynn Hoffman can reduce some concerns about the safety of children's shoes.

Ms. Ling intends to pay more attention to buying shoes for her son.

She focused on the planned purchase of children's shoes and carefully searched for the promises made by the children's shoe brands in ensuring children's health and safety.

Through these means, Ms Ling hopes to buy children's shoes with value for money, ensure the safety of their feet, and at the same time make her feel more comfortable.