Formaldehyde

Follow up the contract term by requesting information from the supplier that the contract term is fulfilled at the specific time, for example:

Labelling
Follow up the contract term by checking that there is a valid license for the product in question, for example: 

• Ökotex Standard 100 (produktklass I)
• Nordic Swan Ecolabel for Textile, hides/skins and leather
• EU Ecolabel for textile products 2014/350/EU (textiles for children and textiles with direct skin contact)
• GOTS
• bluesign APPROVED – BSSL (bluesign system substance list, usage range A, B)

For bluesign, a valid certificate can be requested from the supplier. The Supplier can receive a certificate from its “bluesign system partner” in the supply chain. bluesign APPROVED covers the different textiles. If bluesign APPROVED is used as verification a certificate for each ingoing textile in the product is needed.

Analysis report

Follow up the contract term by performing spot-checks on the analysis reports and check that the values are below the limit value of the contract term for formaldehyde. The analysis can be performed in accordance with Standard EN ISO-14184-1 or equivalent. Also check that the analyses were performed by an accredited laboratory.

Self-declaration verified by an accredited verification body

Follow up the contract term by requesting the supplier's self-declaration, including documentation showing that the contract term is met. The self-declaration shall be verified by an accredited verification body that is accredited for the task in accordance with ISO/IEC 17029 or equivalent standard.

In this advanced criterion, the level of formaldehyde is as low as it is possible to detect, which means that formaldehyde shall not have been used in production.

Note that for Ökotex 100 only product class I can verify this contract term. For bluesign, only usage range A can verify the requirement. EU Ecolabel can only verify the requirement for textiles for children under three years of age and textiles with direct skin contact. There may be a need to  perform a dialogue with suppliers before this contract term is set  to ensure that there are textiles available the market fulfilling the contract term.

Protective clothing whose protective function, for example water repellent/waterproof or flame retardant requires the use of formaldehyde is exempt from the contract term. 

There are currently a limited number of accredited verification bodies according to ISO / IEC 17029 (Conformity assessment - General principles and requirements for validation and verification bodies), as it is a relatively new standard. However, this may change, especially if the demand for verifying compliance in this way increases. More information about the standard and accredited verification bodies can be found on Swedac's website.

The version date indicates when the sustainability criterion was created or last updated. Last reviewed dated tells when we last checked that the sustainability criterion still is relevant.