The first results of a new screening tool for impurities found in bulk commodity chemicals used during textile wet processing has found heavy metals, phthalates and halogenated solvents are the primary contaminants.
The screening tool, developed by US software provider Scivera and Mumbai-based analytical laboratory testing lab NimkarTek, was tested in pilot trials on over 330 different samples over the past year from 55 different textile and apparel factories.
Until recently, it wasn’t realised that bulk commodity chemicals - bought cheaply on the open market and used routinely in wet processing - can be heavily contaminated with restricted chemicals that eventually end up in wastewater.
