OEKO-TEX announces updates for 2017

OEKO-TEX, the international independent textile testing institutes, has reviewed their product requirements and published new regulations for 2017 on Friday. The changes will affect the STeP limit value tables, Made in Green and Standard 100 and will come into effect on 1st April 2017 after a three-months transition period.

In particular, the limit value tables of Annex G1 and G2 of the STeP by OEKO-TEX standard documents have been revised and the new chapter “Hazardous processes that should be avoided” has been added to Annex D. These processes to be avoided include the use of potentially hazardous surfactants, sodium hypochlorite (as a bleaching agent) and defoamers that are potentially damaging to the environment. More details can be found at oeko-tex.com/step-updates-2017.

Satisfying market requirements, a new price strategy was established for the product label Made in Green by OEKO-TEX to offer label issuers the option to use smaller packets of labels or even just a single label for their product. The same applies to MySTeP by OEKO-TEX.

New regulations affect STeP limit value tables, Made in Green and Standard 100

The most extensive changes have been made for the new regulations regarding product certification in line with Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX, which will be discussed in a free webinar on 25th January 2017 at 6:00 pm CET. Prior online registration is required.

For example, in product class I - items for babies and small children - use of per- and polyfluorinated compounds has been severely restricted and nearly eliminated because a large number of substances has been added or listed explicitly by name and provided with limit values.

This also applies to the list of regulated softeners (phthalates) in all product classes. Several substances were added, for example the three organic tin compounds dipropyltin (DPT), monophenyltin (MPhT) and tetraethyltin (TeET), which are now regulated with limit values. In addition, the use of the blue colourant “Navy Blue” is now explicitly prohibited for product certification according to Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX.

OEKO-TEX is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2017 and will continue supporting companies and consumers to deliver and choose high quality, more sustainable products to make the textile manufacturing chain more sustainable and the handling of potentially hazardous substances in textile products more responsible. The OEKO-TEX association also supports the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) initiative and the Detox campaign.

Only in December of last year, OEKO-TEX launched a new standard for leather goods, which enables manufacturers and suppliers to test their products for harmful substances and to get certification.

Photo: OEKO-TEX