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European Commission bans use of NPEs in textile items from 2021

• By  Henry Dsouza
• January 21, 2016

The European Commission (EC) has published a regulation to ban the use of nonyl phenol ethoxylates (NPEs) in textile articles sold in all European Union member states from 3rd February 2021. According to the notice in the EU Official Journal, the amended Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation will come into force from 2 February 2016, and companies will then have five years to remove the chemicals from their products and supply chains.

However, the restriction will not apply to second-hand textile articles or new textile articles produced without the use of NPE exclusively from recycled textiles. The move comes after EU member states last year unanimously agreed on a ban of the chemical. The wide use of NPE in the textile industry was brought to light by a Greenpeace International report, Dirty Laundry 2: Hung Out to Dry in 2011, which found toxic chemicals in waste water discharges from two textile processing facilities in China supplying global apparel firms.

According to Greepeace, nonylphenol is a persistent chemical with hormone-disrupting properties that builds up in the food chain and is hazardous even at very low levels.

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