OEKO-TEX® and the REACh SVHC Candidate List

Status as of 1 November 2008

Article 33 of the REACh Regulation places a legal obligation on all product suppliers (manufacturers and
importers) to inform their customers of whether the products supplied contain substances included on
what is known as the REACh "Candidate List" in concentrations greater than 0.1 percent w/w. This unit
corresponds to 1000 mg/kg or 1000 ppm.

When consulting your records, should you find that your products contain more than 0.1 percent w/w of a
substance that has been classified as a SVHC, you must inform the subsequent users and distributors of
your products in a timely manner.

In addition, according to the REACh Regulation, all consumers have the right to demand reliable
information about such products from the manufacturer or seller. The consumer must receive this
information within 45 days.

Compulsory declarations according to REACh, therefore must be made for all types of products
with a content of SVHCs greater than 1000 mg/kg in principle.

Please note that substances will continually be added to the REACh Candidate List. The Oeko-Tex®
testing institutes will observe these developments continually and respond to them.

For years now, the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 has given textile manufacturers a tool with which they have
been successfully able to exclude harmful substances from the supply chain. More than 8000 textile
producing companies are already applying continual compliance with the Oeko-Tex® catalogue of criteria
in plant quality assurance. In addition, since the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 was established, most plants,
producers and distributors in the industrial supply chain have been orientating their conditions of supply
towards specifications' catalogues that are structured in a very similar way. Random sampling and
monitoring inspections are carried out at every step along the entire textile processing chain and between
each delivery to production sites.

According to REACh, each supplier is now legally required to provide their industrial customers down the
production supply chain with at least the name of the substance on the Candidate List if it is contained in
the product at a concentration greater than 0.1 percent w/w. Because the Candidate List is compiled
based on all sectors of industry, the main challenge it poses is determining precisely how the textile
production chain is affected, if at all, by the substances listed.

Attached to this notice is a list containing the first 15 candidate substances. By looking at the table, it also
becomes clear whether these substances are relevant for the textile production chain and if they have
already been regulated or banned in the Oeko-Tex® catalogue of criteria.

Deutsche Zertifizierungsstelle Oeko-Tex®

Frankfurter Straße 10-14
65760 Eschborn
GERMANY
Phone: +49 6196 966-247
E-mail: certification.knels@oeko-tex.com
Page 2

Our response to this is as follows:

Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD)

The listed flame retardant HBCDD is a simple matter. Manufacturers whose products are not treated with
flame retardants have no further concerns in this regard. Producers who make textiles treated with flame
retardants or distributors of such articles must now have fundamental knowledge of the chemical basis for
this feature. The producers of these chemicals know that the safety data sheets for these compounds are
to be more comprehensive in future and that the conditions for their use in Europe are being uniformly
redefined. As a result, there will be clear pressure with reference to the environment and usage to draw
on safer substitute products.

The Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 regulates flame retardants specifically. For a few years now, textiles
intended for garment manufacture are only accepted if they have been tested for harmlessness by
external toxicologists. HBCDD is not present in any of the products that have been accepted.
Nevertheless, in order to clearly document the compliance of Oeko-Tex ® criteria with the provisions of
REACh, starting in 2009, use of HBCDD will be ruled out, just as other polybrominated flame retardants
are already.

Dibutyl phthalate (DBT), Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP)

The phthalates on the REACh Candidate List are already regulated in the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100
criteria catalogue for product classes I and II. Within the framework of Oeko-Text® certification, textile
items that have been processed using a combination of soft PVC and flexible synthetics are tested in
order to ensure that the concentration of the three phthalates in articles in both Product class I and
Product class II have a concentration of less than 0.1 percent w/w. As a result, PVC sock treads have
been replaced by treads made of silicon and laminated synthetic textiles, as have, for example,
substances in washable changing mats, and rain pants and prints are also tested for plastisol
compositions.

The phthalates already regulated by Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 were included in the catalogue of criteria
in accordance with the European directive EU Directive 2005/84 EG. Babies must not be able to ingest
any synthetic substances in or on textiles that could release these risky plasticizers.

The existing phthalate restrictions in the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 will be extended to Product class III
and Product class IV starting in 2009, meaning that Oeko-Tex® certificates will only be issued to such
products if they contain no more than 0.1 percent w/w of these types of phthalate.

O:\PrTexte\OEKO-TEX\Anfragen\2008-11_REACh-Kundeninfo\REACh-Customer-Info_2008-11.doc
Page 3

Potassium dichromate and Bis(tributyltin) oxide

Postassium dichromate poses similar problems to those exhibited by Chromium-VI. This powerful skin
allergen has already been eliminated from the textile production chain through practical implementation of
the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100, which requires that Chromium VI be "under the detection limit".

Finishing agents containing organic tin compounds in the area of textile consumer articles for daily use
are also completely undesirable. As a result, the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 has set limits excluding TBT,
TPhT and DBT from finishing agents.

For more information and comprehensive dossiers on individual candidate substances, please see the
homepage of the European Chemicals Agency ECHA at

http://echa.europa.eu/consultations/authorisation/svhc/svhc_cons_en.asp.

Oeko-Tex® Certification Centre GmbH, November 2008

Jutta Knels

O:\PrTexte\OEKO-TEX\Anfragen\2008-11_REACh-Kundeninfo\REACh-Customer-Info_2008-11.doc
 Page 4

Table 1: REACH Candidate List as of 28 October 2008

Substance CAS EC Number Grounds Relevance for textiles? Included in the Oeko-Tex®
Number criteria catalogue?

NO NO
Anthracene 120-12-7 204-371-1 PBT
but for dye-making

4.4’- YES YES

101-77-9 202-974-4 CMR (carcenogenic, category 2)
Diaminodiphenylmethane dyes and polyurethane banned MAK-arylamines

YES YES

plasticizers for PVC, previously in

Dibutyl phthalate 84-74-2 201-557-4 CMR (tetragenic, category 2) synthetics, plastisol flock product classes I and II
printing compounds
in all product classes
from 2009

NO YES
Cobalt dichloride 7646-79-9 231-589-4 CMR (carcenogenic, category 2)
testing for heavy metals

NO YES
Diarsenic pentoxide 1303-28-2 215-116-9 CMR (carcenogenic, category 1)
testing for heavy metals

NO YES
Diarsenic trioxide 1327-53-3 215-481-4 CMR (carcenogenic, category 1)
testing for heavy metals

CMR (carcinogenic, category 2; YES YES

7789-12-0
Potassium dichromate 234-190-3 mutagenic, category 2; tetragenic, included in effective ban on
10588-01-9
category 2) Chromium IV in textiles

5-tert-Butyl-2,4,6-trinitro- NO YES
81-15-2 201-329-4 vPvB
m-xylene (Musk xylene) determination of odours

YES YES

plasticizers for PVC, previously in

Bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-
117-81-7 204-211-0 CMR (tetragenic, category 2) synthetics, plastisol flock product classes I and II
phthalate (DEHP)
printing compounds
in all product classes
from 2009

Hexabromocyclo- YES YES

25637-99-4 247-148-4 and
dodecane (HBCDD) (and PBT
and 3194-55-6 221-695-9 flame retardants explicitly listed from 2009
isomers)

NO NO
Alkanes, C10-13-, Chlor-
(short-chain chloro 85535-84-8 287-476-5 PBT, vPvB leather oiling agents
paraffins)
flame retardants

NO YES
effective exclusion of
Bis(tributyltin) oxide 56-35-9 200-268-0 PBT biocide finishing agents
based on ban of organic tin
compounds

CMR (carcinogenic, category 2; NO YES

Lead hydrogen arsenate 7784-40-9 232-064-2
tetragenic, category 1) testing for heavy metals

NO YES
Triethylarsenate 15606-95-8 427-700-2 CMR (carcenogenic,categ. 1)
testing for heavy metals

YES YES

Plasticizers for PVC, previously in

Benzyl butyl phthalate 85-68-7 201-622-7 CMR (tetragenic, category 2) synthetics, plastisol flock product classes I and II
printing compounds
in all product classes
from 2009

O:\PrTexte\OEKO-TEX\Anfragen\2008-11_REACh-Kundeninfo\REACh-Customer-Info_2008-11.doc