Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies a test method for the determination of adsorbable organic halogens and total organic halogens in textiles by ion chromatography.

Purpose

1) In the textile industry, halogenated organics are commonly used to improve the properties of fabrics, such as the chlorination shrink proof process of wool, bleaching of sodium hypochlorite and chlorite, dry cleaning of chlorinated solvents, etc., which leads to a high residue of organic halides in textile products. Organic halogenated compounds have been identified as CMR (Carcinogenic, Mutagenic or Toxic to Reproduction), PBT (Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic), vPvB (very Persistent and very bioaccumulation cumulative), it does great harm to human health and ecological environment. Most of organic halogenated compounds are difficult to biodegrade and are highly fat-soluble. They can interact with human protein or nucleic acid and easily accumulate in the ecological environment and affect human health and harm through the food chain.

Therefore, many national governments and industry organizations have issued regulations and ecological standards for the prohibition and restriction of organic halogens. According to the legal requirements of EU REACh and SVHC, many harmful organic halogens, i.e. perfluorinated compounds (PFOS, PFOA), chlorinated pesticides, chlorinated organic carrier (chlorinated -benzenes, -toluene), flame retardant (polychlorobenzene, polybromobenzene, polybrominated diphenyl ether) and chlorinated chemical solvents, are prohibited or limited for use in textile products.

2) Adsorbable organic halogen (AOX) is an important indicator of sewage quality control in the environmental field, which generally refers to the organic halides in wastewater that can be adsorbed by activated carbon. Total organic halogen (TOX) refers to all residual organic halides, including AOX which can be adsorbed by activated carbon. As an overall indicator of the certain type of compounds, both AOX and TOX are also introduced into the fields of industrial products on qualitycontrol. In the field of textile products, AOX and TOX contents in textiles are limited by some countries' technical regulations, product standards and product quality requirements in international trade.

3) Although many standard testing methods had been issued and carried out to determine different types of harmful halogenated -pesticide, -surfactant, -flame retardant, -auxiliaries, which could not determine all kinds of halogenated compounds. Many textile-product standards had raised great concerns on AOX or/and TOX with strict limitations in the finished products of textiles. However, to our knowledge in the worldwide, at present there is no standard testing method suitable to determine the overall indicator of halogens as AOX or TOX in the field of textiles, which hinder the conformity assessment of the green products of textiles. So, in order to promote the smooth implementation of technical regulations and product standards, as well as to protect human health and the ecological environment, it is necessary to prepare the ISO standard on determining AOX and TOX in textiles as soon as possible.