SEAC publishes comments on chrome VI draft opinion
Responses to the two-month consultation set up by the European Commission’s Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis (SEAC) on proposed alterations to chrome VI detection limits have been published.
Ahead of the consultation, SEAC recommended that the current 3 mg/kg concentration limit was to remain only temporarily and that the consultation was to gather information about achieving a reliable 1 mg/kg detection limit for CrVI in leather. Many of the responses, from trade associations, NGOs, universities and certifying organisations, concluded that there was support for continued improvement in reducing any risk to consumers, but that a limit of 1mg/kg was impossible at present.
The main reason for this is that the current test method, EN/ISO 17075, has a quantification limit of 3 parts per million.
In its response, Italy’s national tanning industry association, UNIC, said that recent improvements in detection technology might be used as a base for developing a procedure to reduce the LoQ (Limit Of Detection) but that the expected timeframe, including validation, for that was five years.
Another national body, Leather UK, expressed concern about the uncertainty that a temporary measure would create; it said this could “negatively and unnecessarily impact on the chromium-tanning sector”. It said customers of these businesses, particularly those that specify their leather on extended time-frames (such as the automotive sector, which may select leathers for new models as much as five years before their launch) may be “reluctant to speculate on an uncertain and changing legal framework and opt not to invest in leather”.
