Sustainability criterion for Formaldehyde | The National Agency for Public Procurement

Criterion text

The content of free and partly hydrolysable¹formaldehyde (CAS 50-00-0) shall not exceed 75 mg/kg (75 ppm) in the textiles delivered under the contract.

¹Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction in which molecules are broken down / divided by the addition of water.

Verification

The supplier shall, upon request, be able to present any of for example the following:

Valid license for any of for example the following labels:
- Ökotex Standard 100 (product class I, II)
- Nordic Swan Ecolabel of Textile, hides/skins and leather
- EU Ecolabel for textile products 2014/350/EU
- GOTS
- bluesign APPROVED – BSSL (bluesign system substance list, usage range A,B)
Analysis report from an accredited laboratory with measured levels of formaldehyde that meet the limit value in the requirement. The analysis can be performed in accordance with Standard EN ISO-14184-1 or equivalent.
The supplier’s self-declaration including technical documentation of compliance, shall be verified by an accredited verification body that is accredited for the task in accordance with ISO/IEC 17029 or equivalent standard.

Proposed follow-up

Labelling

If the requirement has been verified with a label, check that there is a valid license for the product in question. This can be checked on each website: Ökotex, Nordic Swan Ecolabel, EU Ecolabel, GOTS

If the requirement has been verified with bluesign, a valid certificate can be requested from the supplier. The Supplier can receive a certrificate 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

If the requirement has been verified with analysis reports, perform spot-checks on the analysis reports and check that the values are below the requirement limit value for formaldehyde. Also check that the analyses were performed by an accredited laboratory.

Self-declaration verified by an accredited verification body

If a verified self-declaration is used to prove that the requirement is fulfilled, request the supplier’s self-declaration, including documentation showing that the requirement is met. The self-declaration shall be verified by a verification body accredited for the task in accordance with ISO / IEC 17029 or equivalent standard.

Information about the criterion

This core criterion is at the same level as in Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) 1907/2006 on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (Reach), for consumer textiles. However, the criterion goes further than the legislation as it covers more types of textiles, for example staff clothing, which are not covered by the legislation.

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.

Environmental goals

A Non-Toxic Environment

Agenda 2030

Versions history

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.

Current ID: 10019:4
Version date: 2021-11-10
Review date: 2024-05-27

Formaldehyde