News

On March 15th, the MIDWOR-LIFE project team, coordinated by AEI Tèxtils – the technical textile cluster of Catalonia-  and Euratex co-organized a workshop at the Casa de la Seda in Barcelona, as part of its wider an overall strategy towards the replacement of harmful chemicals in textile industry.

The workshop gathered participants from the chemical industry, textile associations, testing laboratories and research institutes. The aims of the workshop were twofold: to present the latest MIDWOR results assessing safer alternatives to durable water and oil repellants (DWORs) such as PFOA and PFOS in textile industry and to launch a first discussion on the matter by bringing together European experts with different competencies and perspectives. Read more

In the face of unpredictable weather conditions, waterproof jackets have become key items in many people’s wardrobes.

But new research from the University of Leeds suggests that the use of controversial fluorochemicals in the manufacture of most of these garments may be unnecessary.

The chemistry used to repel rain from fabric has raised concerns from European legislative bodies, academia, and environmentalists.

As well as posing potential risks to the environment, fluorocarbons have also been associated with health problems in humans.

Some clothing brands have switched to alternative chemistries, but many have claimed it is challenging to meet other repellency requirements – such as stain resistance and oil repellency – without the use of fluorochemicals.

Research from Leeds’ School of Design, published in the journal Chemosphere, has for the first time compared the performance of fabrics with newer, alternative finishes alongside ones treated with fluorocarbons.

In addition to subjecting samples of 22 different fabrics to extensive chemical analysis and testing, the Leeds team surveyed 575 outdoor enthusiasts who regularly participate in hiking, trekking, mountaineering, and hill-walking, about how they used such clothing.

“Most studies just look at technical aspects or environmental pollution, but we wanted to see what consumers considered the most important factors in choosing outdoor clothing,” said Philippa Hill, whose PhD research is the subject of the paper.

“We found that 82% of people considered water repellency to be the most important factor, but the majority of people were indifferent to levels of stain resistance and oil repellency – one participant even said ‘I don’t get oily when walking’,” added Miss Hill.

Dr Richard Blackburn heads the Sustainable Materials Research Group at Leeds, a world-leading centre in sustainable textiles research.

He said: “We concluded that the use of fluorochemicals in outdoor apparel represents over-engineering, providing oil repellency that is in excess of user requirements.

“Significant environmental and toxicological benefits could be achieved by switching outdoor apparel to non-fluorinated finishes without a significant reduction in garment water-repellency performance.”

Leeds’ School of Design has a long-standing relationship with the outdoor industry and used world-class in-house clothing testing facilities to compare the performance of fabric samples supplied by various manufacturers and brands, which were finished with either fluorochemicals, non-fluorinated chemistry, or were untreated.

Performance clothing lecturer Dr Mark Taylor, also from the School of Design, said: “We found water repellency ratings were similar across the range of all finished fabrics tested. Non-fluorinated finishes provided no oil repellency, as expected.”

Sustainability is a growing concern within the textile and clothing industry, which uses a quarter of all the chemicals produced across the globe. They are used to alter fabric properties such as feel, flame-retardancy and water-repellency, as well as colour.

Dr Blackburn added: “It’s very important that sustainability should be about better chemistry. Consumers don’t need to compromise on performance for the sake of the environment. However, for all products and processes we have to weigh up if the requirements we are aiming for are fit for purpose.”

Once economies of scale kicked in, he said the relatively new-to-market non-fluorinated fabrics were unlikely to be more expensive than their counterparts.

The team’s conclusions are being explored by further research into the effects of laundering, abrasion and aging on the various fabrics.

Pamela Ravasio is Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability with the European Outdoor Group, which represents the sector.

She said: “The European Outdoor Group welcomes this new research, which adds scientific insight and data to this complex and multi-faceted issue. One of the key challenges we encounter as an industry is that there is very little reliable, scientifically-based data available.

“This limits understanding of the long-term environmental and health impacts of the new chemistries – such knowledge is also critical to avoid new chemistries being introduced which turn out to be even more harmful than those they replace.

“We look forward to further research that will increase knowledge and contribute to better technologies.”

Further information

• “Substitution of PFAS chemistry in outdoor apparel and the impact on repellency performance” by Philippa J Hill, Mark Taylor, Parikshit Goswami and Richard S Blackburn, is published in the latest issue of Chemosphere
• For interviews or a copy of the paper, contact University of Leeds Media Relations Manager Gareth Dant on 0113 3433996 or g.j.dant@leeds.ac.uk.

MIDWOR-LIFE was present at the most important trade fair on technical textiles in Europe: TECHTEXTIL.

TECHTEXTIL was held from 9th to 12th May in Frankfurt. It received more than 42.000 visitors from 105 different countries.

MIDWOR-LIFE was represented within the booth of CLUTEX, the Czech partner, AEI TEXTIL and LEITAT also attended the event on behalf of the project.

The first part of Action B1 consists of performing the application of the selected conventional and alternative DWOR products on the selected fabrics.

Read more

Now’s the time for wise substitution

Chemical Substitution is a hot topic in Europa as the 2018 registration deadline, part of the REACH process managed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is closer and chemicals which are not registered will no be able to be supplied legally in the EU market.

Mr. Mauro Scalia, Manager of Sustainable Businesses of EURATEX and member of MIDWOR-LIFE External Advisory Board shares his perspective and the substitution process driven by the implementation of REACH and the proposal to ban some chemical substances such as PFOA and how this rises new challenges in the innovation field.

Read more

The European Union (EU) is proposing to regulate perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and similar substances under Annex XVII of REACH. If approved, the measures will be implemented in phases starting 2020.

According to the draft Regulation, attached to WTO document 16-5339, PFOA is identified as a persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance (PBT). It has been on the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs) since June 2013, and is a candidate for listing under Annex XIV (Authorization List) of REACH.

Read more

The aim of this action is to determine the environmental impact of the different Durable Water and Oil Repellent (DWOR) substances using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and the results obtained from the industrial validation (Action B1).

With the purpose of advancing in the development of this environmental assessment, and aiming to address different aspects that must be defined at early stages of the activity, a draft version of the LCA has been developed. This initial LCA has been built using the results from the previous Preparatory Actions (A1 & A2) and specific data from the Ecoinvent database and technical references.

Read more

MIDWOR-LIFE project attended to the Dornbirn Man-made Fibers Congress that was held from the 20th to the 22nd of September.

Dornbirn-MFC is the global flagship event and innovation platform where about 800 researchers and technicians from 30 nations will meet this year.

Read more

AEI TEXTIL organized a workshop on the 21st of June on the topic “Environmental sustainability challenges in the technical textile sector”. Representatives of 25 SMEs and over 30 attendees gathered together at the Textile Museum of Terrassa (CDMT).

The workshop evolved around three main objetives:

• Presentation of the Catalan technical textile cluster “AEI Textiles”.
• “Who-is-who” session: 16 companies presented their history, culture and innovation strategy to stay competitive.
• Presentation of LIFE+ Programme and the MIDWOR-LIFE project as an example of collaboration between Clusters, SMEs and Research Centers to study a problem that affects environmental sustainability all around the globe.
• Workshop to detect environmental needs and issues to ignite actions that will benefit the technical textiles sector as a whole.
• Networking lunch.

MIDWOR-LIFE PROJECT STARTS ITS ACTIVITIES

The Project, which will be carried out by a consortium of 6 partners, aims to mitigate the environmental, health and safety impacts of current and future Durable Water and Oil Repellents (DWOR) alternatives by analyzing their environmental impact and technical performance

The starting meeting of MIDWOR-LIFE project took place in Terrassa (Barcelona, Spain) on Wednesday 30th September 2015.

MIDWOR-LIFE is cofounded by the European Community under the LIFE+ Financial Instrument within the axe Environment Policy and Governance and under the Grant Agreement n. LIFE14 ENV/ES/000670, it started on 1st September 2015 and lasts 36 months with a total budget of 931.850 €. Read more