Azocolorants in Textiles and Toys

1 Introduction

1.1 Background
1.2 Aim

In recent years there has been discussions about the carcinogenic potential of a certain group of colorants

Azo-dyestuffs and pigments (azo-colorants), as the group is classified chemically, are among other things used in the dyeing and printing of textiles. It is the largest group of synthetic dyestuffs coming to 70% of the organic dyestuffs on the market.

Azo-colorants are used for natural, regenerated and synthetic fibres. Owing to the potential carcinogenic effect of certain azo-colorants, their health and environmental properties are under suspicion.

Regulations exist in some countries (Enclosure 2) defining certain groups, socalled aromatic amines, which are known or suspected to be carcinogenic.

The aromatic amines may be split off from certain azo-colorants by the reductive cleavage process.

This project is an attempt to elucidate the human and ecotoxicological characteristics of the aromatic amines in order to give a background for a health and environmental evaluation of aromatic amines in azo-colorants.

The aim of the project is to describe those azo-colorants which are of relevance to textile dyeing and printing in both Denmark and abroad.

Furthermore the health and environmental problems in the end-use phase caused by dyestuffs and pigments used for textile products are evaluated on the background of existing knowledge and specialist literature.

As mentioned above the project is limited to concern the aspect of end-use including washing or cleaning. Consequently, only those health and environmental problems are considered which are relevant when textile products are used by the consumer. Thus aspects in the production phase are excluded.

In addition, the aim is to identify the aromatic amines which may be split off.

The practical part is to be carried out by sampling and analysis of a total about 60 textile products, of which 20 belong to the category toys.

The selection of the samples is based on the results of the abovementioned evaluations with a relevant country of origin (both Denmark and foreign countries), and relevant analysis parameters are selected on the basis of the health and environmental evaluations.

The intention is to elucidate if aromatic amines, which could harm health or environment, can be released from textiles on the Danish market.

In the present project the term azo-colorants includes both azo-dyestuffs and azo-pigments.