Standards Development

Scope

This proposed deliverable specifies a method of determining sixteen organic solvent residues in footwear materials with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

This proposed deliverable is applicable to footwear products where there is a risk of the presence of certain solvent residues. 

Purpose

— Industrial organic solvents are often used as adhesive, treating agents and coating agents for footwear materials.

— Some organic solvents have been proved to be bio-toxic and may cause environmental pollution in large-scale industrial application.

— Harmful solvents left in footwear may penetrate into human body through contact with human skin during wearing and through human breath after escaping from footwear, which harms the health of consumers.

— The REACH regulation has banned 42 kinds of hazardous industrial solvents since the fourth batch of SVHC was issued in December 2010, among which the organic solvents involved in the production and application of footwear industry are 1,2- Dimethoxyethane, 1,2-Diethoxyethane, 2-Methoxyethanol, 2-Ethoxyethanol, 2-Ethoxyethyl acetate, 2-Methoxyethyl ether, N,NDimethylformamide, 2-Ethoxyethyl ether, N,N-Dimethylacetamide, 2-(2-Methoxyethoxy) ethanol, N-Methylacetamide, Formamide, 1- Methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, Triethylene glycol dimethyl ether.

— It is necessary to establish an international standard for the detection method of the residues of harmful industrial solvents in footwear, which can effectively monitor the quality of footwear products, protect the health of consumers, promote the clean production of footwear enterprises and protect the ecological environment.

— At present, there are no specific international standards to assess the industrial solvent residues in footwear.