星期六 [ 2010-2-6 9:12:18 | watches1013 ]   RP shoes found with hazardous Two brands of locally-made leather shoes analyzed by Swedish laboratories Swerea IVF and Eurofins tested positive for hazardous chemicals.A report by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) said the Philippine-made shoes showed traces of carcinogens and other Stainless Steel Pendant hazardous chemicals.The report said Philippine-based environmental group Ecological Waste (EcoWaste) Coalition bought two pairs of Bandolino and Rusty Lopez leather shoes from a mall in Quezon City and sent them to Sweden for the chemical analysis.The shoes were part of batch that included 21 pairs of shoes, 11 of which were purchased in Sweden, two each from South Africa, Uganda, Belarus, India, and the Philippines, analyzed for the possible content of hazardous metals and other carcinogenic substances.“The scientific investigation by SSNC found a cocktail of chemicals in the shoe samples bought in six countries that can put workers, consumers and the environment at risk during the entire life cycle of the shoes,” EcoWaste president Manny Calonzo said.“For public safety and environmental health, we urge the authorities to enact and enforce policies that will prohibit dangerous chemicals in consumer products, especially those that can cause carcinogenic, hormone damaging and allergenic hazards, and promote safe substitutes,” he added.The report revealed that a pair of Rusty Lopez dark brown leather shoes for men contained the highest amount of benzidine, a carcinogenic aromatic amine.The Philippine sample contained 68 mg/kg of benzidine, which is more than twice the acceptable limit of 30 mg/kg stipulated under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances (REACH) of the European Union.The RP shoes also have the highest cadmium and nickel content among the shoes that were tested. It ranked second in chromium, and third in arsenic and lead in the 21 pairs tested.The other shoe sample from the Philippines, a pair of Bandolino black boots for women, ranked first in cobalt content, third in chromium, and fourth in arsenic and mercury.EcoWaste said the most serious finding of the study was that “tons of trivalent chromium derived from the tanning of leather is spread into environment every year when the shoes are eventually disposed of as waste.”It Rolex Watch Replica pointed out that chromium tanning accounts for some 80-85 percent of all tanning globally.The international product survey was conducted to increase awareness among producers, retailers, and consumers on what chemicals can be found in leather shoes, which are linked to the wide range of chemicals used in the tanning, preservation and dyeing of the leather, so that they can demand products free of problematic chemicals.Among the chemicals that were analyzed include metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc), carcinogenic aromatic amines from azo dyes, chlorinated phenols, ortho-phenylphenol,2,4,6-tribromophenol, dimethylfumarate, formaldehyde and chlorinated paraffin.EcoWaste noted that seven of these chemicals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, pentachlorophenol, and formaldehyde) are included in the priority chemicals list of the Philippines, which the Department of Environment and Natural Resouces (DENR) has ascertained as potentially posing unwarranted risks to public health, workplace and the environment.The study showed that upon incineration, open burning or landfilling of leather waste containing chromium, the most common and embroidered patches least toxic trivalent form of chromium may oxidize into the highly toxic and carcinogenic hexavalent form.“The hexavalent chromium that has not been cleaned from the flue gases is spread into the environment. It can be 浏览(180) | 回复(0) |