Lead (Pb) and lead salts
Required limit value:
Should not be present in textiles. 100 mg/kg for lead as a metal in plastic and metallic accessories.
CAS RN:
Lead (metal): 7439-92-1
Properties:
Lead exposure can give rise to a number of negative health effects, including damage to liver, nervous system and foetuses. Lead is mainly accumulated in bone tissue. It has a very long half-life in the human body. Use of lead in plastics has not been deemed to cause any significant environmental or health effects in the short term, but in the long term such use increases lead concentrations in the environment.
Use:
Lead salts are additives in plastics as stabilizers to increase the service of life of the material. May be used as pigment in paint and in coloured plastic material. Metallic surface coating of buttons and accessories. For recycled packaging material lead may have had a different original use. Lead metal can also be used to increase ductility of other metals.
Comments:
Alternative stabilizers are barium/zinc, potassium/zinc, calcium or calcium/zinc organic stabilizers. Alternative catalysts can be organotitanate or zirconate compounds (e.g. titanium 2-ethylhexanoate) or amines such as bis- (dimethylaminoethyl) ether (BDMAEE) and triethylenediamine (TEDA) along with organometallic compounds such as potassium acetate.
Legal background:
Lead and lead salts are listed on the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern for authorization of the Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH). SVHC lead compounds are listed in Appendix 6. The sum of concentration levels of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium present in packaging or packaging components shall not exceed 100 ppm by weight Directive (EC) No 94/62/EC of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste.
CHEMICALS GUIDANCE | Edition: January 2020 | © 2020 Textilimportörerna/Swedish Chemicals Group - RISE IVF
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