Golf Refugees are actively lobbying the EU
to increase consumer’s awareness and devise new regulations for combination
testing of the highly toxic chemicals used in sports apparel.
From the EU.
This is to reply to your follow-up e-mail of
20 May to our communication of 16 May 2013, where you have
raised a number of additional questions as regards the protection and
information of consumers about chemicals in textiles they are buying.
EU legislation includes several approaches
to limiting quantity of these chemicals in textiles. For example, the REACH
Regulation, Water Framework Directive (WFD), the Industrial Emissions Directive
(IED) impose restrictions on the use of dangerous substances in textile
products marketed in the EU or on the discharges and emissions of such
substances to air, soil and water during the production of textiles products.
The implementation and/or enforcement of that
legislation fall to MemberState’s competent
authorities.
Golf Refugees response.
From your statement it falls upon individual
member states competent authorities to enforce existing EU legislation with
regard to the level of toxic chemicals used in textiles marketed in the EU. Can
you please provide a list of those EU member states competent authorities? How are individual member states expected to
enforce current EU legislation? Is there a staggered testing programme across
EU member states for testing of textiles to make sure they are compliant with
existing legislation? If yes, how often are individual member states expected
to test for levels of toxic chemicals used in textiles; annually, bi-annually,
every five years, ten years and where do they publish their results?
From the EU.
As regards to lead compounds being used in
sports apparel, in addition to the numerous pieces of legislation already
regulating them, in December 2012 a number of lead compounds have been
identified under REACH as substances of very high concern.
The listing of these ‘very high concern’ substances
in the candidate list imposes obligations on suppliers of such substances (on
their own or in mixtures) to provide their customers and recipients with safety
data sheets. It also implies obligation on suppliers of articles containing the
listed substances to provide recipients and consumers (the latter upon request)
with information about the presence of the substances in articles.
Being aware of the importance and complexity
of the issue of chemicals in textiles, the Commission is in the process of
reviewing the existing legislative instruments and approaches used for
addressing chemicals in textiles in order to consider whether they merit a
revision.
Golf Refugees response.
With regard to toxic lead and other very
high concern chemicals your statement states it falls upon the customer to
request information from the supplier. In an example this could be a customer
purchasing a golf shirt from a leading sportswear brand.
This raises a significant concern. How many
consumers are aware sports brands use highly toxic chemicals such as lead in
their apparel? If as we suspect the vast majority of consumers who buy sports
apparel in the EU are unaware, and are unable to find out by simply looking at
textile labels or on the brands web sites. It is highly unlikely consumers are
going to request this information from the supplier on toxic substances.
Can we therefore request you
consider a voluntary scheme for brands to list the toxic chemicals they use in
consumer goods on their web sites for customers to access?
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