On June 20, 2013, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) added another six chemicals to their candidate list of Substances of Very High Concern. OEKO-TEX® is providing notification that the newly added substances are already part of the current OEKO-TEX Standard 100 testing criteria. Each OEKOTEX certificate also confirms that the certified products meet the current requirements of Annex XVII of the REACh Regulation with regard to restricted substances such as azo dyes or nickel.
The REACh Regulation applies across all industries and places the textile and clothing industry under the obligation to inform their buyers if the manufactured products contain SVHC substances in a concentration of more than 0.1 percent weight by weight. Since the REACh regulation came into effect, the OEKOTEX Association has been paying close attention to the SVHC substances that are identified and published in the candidate list. If new candidate substances are relevant for textile production and are not yet listed in the criteria catalogue as independent test parameters, OEKO-TEX will check if an explicit inclusion is possible to ensure better comparability with other requirements for harmful substances.
The current version of the ECHA candidate list with SVHC substances is available online. The current test criteria and limit values of OEKO-TEX Standard 100 have also been published online.