 The Oeko-Tex Association is an independent, third-party certifier that offers two certifications for textiles: Oeko-Tex 100 (for products) and Oeko-Tex 1000 (for production sites/factories). Products satisfying the criteria for Oeko-Tex 100 and produced in a Oeko-Tex 1000 certified facility may use the Oeko-Tex 100+ mark, which is simply a combination of the two.
Oeko-Tex 100
The Oeko-Tex 100 standard is concerned primarily with health and safety of textile products. It is NOT an organic certification and products bearing this mark are not necessarily made from organically grown fibers.
Textiles considered for this standard are classified into four categories:
- Product Class I: Products for Babies - all textile products and materials used to manufacture such textile products for children up to the age of 36 months (leather clothing is excepted)
- Product Class II: Products with Direct Contact to Skin - worn articles of which a large surface touches the skin (i.e. underwear, shirts, pants)
- Product Class III: Products without Direct Contact to Skin - articles of which only a small part of their surface touches the skin (i.e. linings, stuffings)
- Product Class IV: Decoration Material - this may also be thought of as housewares, as this category includes table cloths, wall coverings, furnishing fabrics, curtains, upholstery fabrics, floor coverings, and mattresses.
Textile products bearing the Oeko-Tex 100 certification mark are:
- Textiles that do not contain allergenic dye-stuffs and dye stuffs that form carcinogenic arylamines of the MAK-groups III A1 and III A2 (see the Oeko-Tex website for a list of chemicals included in these groups).
- Textiles that had been tested for pesticides and chlorinated phenoles.
- Textiles that have been tested for the release of heavy metals under artificial perspiration conditions.
- Textiles free from formaldehyde or containing trace amounts significantly lower than the required legal limits.
- Textiles with a skin friendly pH.
- Textiles free from chloro-organic carriers.
- Textiles for garments free from biologically active finishes.
Certification may be given to a finished product (such as a shirt), or to individual components (such as yarn, or fabric).
The certification process includes thorough testing for a lengthy list of chemicals, including lead, antimony, arsenic, phthalates, pesticides, and chlorinated phenols. The official table of limits for tested chemicals may be found on the Oeko-Tex website.
Oeko-Tex 1000
The Oeko-Tex 1000 Standard is a certification for environmentally-friendly textile production. It is NOT an organic certification does not necessarily indicate that products produced in a certified factory are made from organically grown fibers.
The goal of the Oeko-Tex 1000 Standard is :
"an evaluation of the environmental performance of textile production sites and products and to document independently that certain environmental measures are undertaken and a certain level achieved."
The evaluation process includes considerations for:
- environmental impact: energy consumption, whether materials used are renewable or non-renewable, and the overall impact of the space utilized
- global impact: use of fossil fuels, use of ozone-depleting chemicals
regional impact: VOC's, water contamination, acidification of soil and water from
- fossil fuel use, emissions (often from chlorine bleaching)
- local effects: emissions, workplace contamination, noise, use of dangerous chemical products
The mark is not applied directly to products, but may be used by the production site (for example, on its letterhead and official documents). The "local effects" consideration does NOT include an evaluation of labor practices and is not meant to be an indicator of whether a production site is following fair labor practices.
Oeko-Tex 100+
This label may be used on products that have met the Oeko-Tex 100 Standard and are also produced in a facility that meets the Oeko-Tex 1000 Standard. |
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