Warning Of Banned Azo Dyes In Japanese Textile And Garment Market

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the global industrialization level, the world is facing the earth.

In July 15, 1994, the German government issued a ban on the use of 20 aromatic amines and their corresponding 118 dyes, which has attracted wide attention in the world.

At present, in the EU and China, more than 30 countries and regions have formulated relevant standards for the definition of the types and content of chemicals in textiles, involving more than 20 banned aromatic amines and more than 300 related dyes.

Recently, news from Japan said that in order to protect consumers' safety, the Japanese textile industry also began planning to restrict imports and use textile and garment products containing prohibited azo dyes.

Before Japan had no relevant laws to restrict harmful chemicals, but for consumers' health and hygiene considerations, the selection, restriction methods and testing methods of hazardous substances were being actively formulated.

From Japan, the Japanese textile industry will soon release relevant requirements on the banned azo dye test.

In order to help enterprises better cope with the relevant requirements, what are azo dyes and related testing mechanisms are briefly analyzed below.

Azo dyes are dyes that contain at least one azo structure in the chemical structure. Azo is often linked to one or more aromatic ring systems to form a conjugated system. As the chromophore of dyes, it is almost distributed in all colors.

It is the most widely used synthetic dye, not only for textile dyeing, but also for dyeing leather, paper, food and so on.

It should be noted that not all azo dyes are prohibited, but that the banned azo dyes that are released by the regulations will be released.

It is generally believed that after the use of azo dyes containing carcinogenic aromatic amines, dyes can be absorbed by the skin and spread in the human body after long term contact with the human body.

These dyes may undergo reductive reactions under the biochemical reaction conditions of normal metabolism of human body, cause azo to break, regenerate carcinogenic aromatic amines, and alter the structure and function of human DNA through activation, causing human diseases and inducing cancer.

The test mechanism of banned azo dyes is: simulating the weak acidic environment of human skin surface, extracting azo dyes in buffer solution, reducing azo by two sodium sulfite, then breaking azo dyes into relatively small aromatic amines, solvent extraction of carcinogenic amines, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

The banned azo dye detection process requires high accuracy and complicated process.

After sample pretreatment and dye reduction, the aromatic amine in aqueous solution was extracted into organic solvents by special extraction column. After a series of complex processes such as concentration, pfer and volume tolerance, the samples dissolved in certain solvents were finally obtained to be detected on machine.

The GC-MS separatedly separated all the complex components in the sample, and obtained the detailed data of each component by scanning. The operator completed the inspection of the samples by analyzing these data, and some data or maps were subjected to repeated analysis and verification before we could conclude which aromatic amine was contained.

It can be seen that the whole process is more complex and prone to higher uncertainty. Small omissions will lead to erroneous inspection results, which will have a serious impact on testing institutions and clients.

As the world's leading inspection, testing, identification and certification agency, SGS has been providing excellent third party testing and quality control services for Chinese textile and garment enterprises in the past twenty years.

It is a leader and innovator in the field of textile and clothing chemical testing in China. It pays close attention to the development trend of azo dyes in Japan, and actively helps enterprises to tailor measures to minimize the market risk of products.

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SGS believes that before the specific regulations are yet to be promulgated, enterprises should make full efforts in the following aspects.

First of all, in the production process, select quality guaranteed dyes, do all we can to eliminate banned dyes from the source line, avoid late detection of azo dyes, and can not cause losses; and pay attention to the immediate detection of samples in production and after production, so as to adjust and reduce losses in time.

Second, vigorously develop environment-friendly dyes instead of banned azo dyes, from the production economy, brand building and human and environmental protection in all aspects of achieving a win-win situation.

At present, the development of replacing banned azo dyes in China has reached a new level. Many units have developed and produced many new environment-friendly dyestuffs. This research and development has been listed as the strategic core work of enterprises' survival and participation in market competition.

Third, China's dyestuff enterprises no longer produce and sell prohibited dyes, printing and dyeing enterprises refused to use azo dyes, so that the market regulation of prohibited dyes to quit is also particularly important.

In addition, it is noteworthy that some dyes do not exist carcinogenic aromatic amines from the chemical structure. However, due to incomplete separation of intermediates, impurities or by-products in the synthesis process, the products are eventually detected as azo dyes, causing unnecessary trouble.

In recent years, textile products exported from China to Japan account for more than 90% of the total textile imports, with huge quantities and many styles, but the price is not satisfactory.

Other countries, such as Italy, can occupy the top 3 of the sunrise volume with a very small volume of output. This shows that China's textile and garment enterprises need more efforts to improve the added value of products.

Prohibition of azo dyes not only helps enterprises reduce test costs and speed up delivery, but also achieve breakthroughs in quality, environmental protection and brand image, which is one of the best choices to increase added value of products.