Formaldehyde
Details
- Type:
- Technical specification
- ID:
- 10019:4
- Group:
- All textiles
- Swedish:
Level: Advanced. Also available as Core
Formaldehyde has health-hazardous properties such as toxic, sensitizing, can cause genetic defects and can cause cancer. The requirement limits the content of formaldehyde emitted from textiles.
Criterion text
The content of free and partly hydrolysable1 formaldehyde (CAS 50-00-0) shall not exceed 20 mg/kg (20 ppm) in the textiles delivered under the contract.
Exception
Protective clothing covered by Regulation (EU) 2016/425 “Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)” is exempt from the requirement.
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:
- Oeko-Tex Standard 100 (product class I)
- Nordic Swan Ecolabel of Textile, hides/skins and leather
- EU Ecolabel for textile products 2014/350/EU (textiles for children under three years and textiles with direct skin contact)
- GOTS
- bluesign APPROVED – BSSL (bluesign system substance list, usage range A)
- 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:.Oeko-Tex, 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 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
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
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 requirement. 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 on 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 requirement.
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
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