Wenzhou has a lot of leather products business, many more products are exported directly to the EU countries. Recently, the Municipal Institute of Standardization issued a special reminder, tanneries can be directly contacted with the skin of leather products, hexavalent chromium content of more than 3mg / kg, its products will not be manufactured and sold in the EU.

Leather products are important export products in Wenzhou. Last year, the city exported a total of 400 million U.S. dollars worth of leather products, of which over 40% were exported to the EU. However, out of the 12 cases in which Wenzhou exported industrial products to the EU RAPEX system last year, 7 cases involved the excessive price of hexavalent chromium in leather products, accounting for nearly 60%. The RAPEX system, the rapid alert system for non-food consumer products, focuses on four broad categories of generic products, toys, cosmetics and low-voltage appliances.

On May 1, 2015, the EU issued relevant regulations to change the hexavalent chromium limit of articles in contact with skin and those containing leather parts from the standard of 1000mg / kg to 3mg / kg. According to the relevant laws and regulations of the municipal institute of standardization, the main reasons for the high frequency notification of the leather products in Wenzhou are still analyzed based on the above notification cases. "First, Wenzhou enterprises lack of understanding of the scope of the provisions of the leather products, accurate, any direct contact with the skin may meet the relevant requirements of leather products, not just limited to daily contact with the product; second is the law of hexavalent Chromium limit the larger adjustment, the requirements of the enterprise production process has greatly improved; Third, the quality of raw materials, however, but off.

It is understood that the leather itself does not contain hexavalent chromium in the leather mixing process, the need to add trivalent chromium compounds, these compounds and leather in the collagen cross-linking reaction, an increase of the dimensional stability of leather, anti-mechanical Performance and heat resistance. However, if the quality of raw materials, processing technology, but off, in the leather storage, the use of trivalent chromium may be converted to hexavalent chromium.

Hexavalent chromium is a highly toxic and toxic substance that can invade the human body through digestion, respiratory tract, skin and mucous membranes. Human skin contact with hexavalent chromium may lead to allergies, dermatitis and eczema; ocular contact with hexavalent chromium may occur retinal hemorrhage, optic atrophy and other phenomena; inhalation and consumption of hexavalent chromium can cause stomach, liver and kidney damage, serious Carcinogenic, more likely to cause genetic defects and so on.

In response to the above situation, the Institute of Standardization recommended that Wenzhou leather enterprises exporting to the EU should pay close attention to the changes in the EU laws and regulations, timely and accurately grasp the relevant technical requirements, and at the same time strictly follow the standards to improve the production process and strengthen the control of process operations. In addition, Wenzhou leather enterprises also need to choose the EU hexavalent chromium testing standards of raw materials, from the source effectively reduce the probability of excessive hexavalent chromium.