Watch out! The invisible "killer" in a plastic bag

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 21 Title: Beware! The invisible "killer" in a plastic bag

Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter

Little boy lang, backpack to school. The bag contained "toxins" and I panicked when I heard it.

"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter recently learned in many places of investigation that now in some places primary and secondary school students backed by some plastic bags, there is a risk of exposure to toxic and dangerous chemicals SCCPs, and the national standards for school bags do not limit the content of SCCPs, resulting in a large number of "toxic school bags" and children "dancing".

Toxic chemicals were detected in student school bags

Chlorinated paraffins are often added as plasticizers in plastic materials, which can increase the flexibility of plastic materials, facilitate shaping and improve the softness of touch, and attract consumers by creating a better appearance and feel of school bags. Chlorinated paraffins can be divided into short chains, medium chains and long chains according to the length of the carbon chain, of which short-chain and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins have certain biological toxicity, and usually the shorter the carbon chain, the stronger the toxicity.

Shenzhen Institute of Metrology and Quality Inspection tested 82 batches of student schoolbag samples circulating in the market, and 42 batches of SCCPs were detected, with a content range of 0.007%-9.5%, and a detection rate of 51%; among them, the SCCPs in 25 batches of samples exceeded the requirements of relevant EU regulations, and the non-compliance rate was 30%.

Feng Anhong, an engineer at the Shenzhen Institute of Metrology and Quality Inspection, believes that school bags accompany students throughout the reading era, and students will touch school bags almost every day, and even sleep with school bags on their lunch breaks. From the research data, it can be seen that there is a risk of exposure to SCCPs in school bags, and toxic substances may enter the human body through the respiratory tract and other channels, which in turn will cause damage to the health of students.

SCCPs also appear on plastic wrapped book covers. A 2019 test by the Shenzhen Municipal Consumer Commission showed that 6 plastic bag book cover samples were detected to contain SCCPs, of which 5 exceeded the limits of eu standards.

The Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals published by the former State Administration of State Safety supervision and 10 other departments included SCCPs, and its hazard category was set as "carcinogenicity category 2, endangering the aquatic environment - acute hazard category 1, endangering the aquatic environment - long-term hazard category 1", indicating that this is a substance suspected of causing cancer, is highly toxic to aquatic organisms, and has a long-term sustained impact.

The former Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs issued the "List of Toxic Chemicals Strictly Restricted in China" listed the list of chemicals that damage health and the environment through environmental accumulation, bioaccumulation, biotransformation or chemical reactions after entering the environment, or have serious harm and potential danger to the human body through contact.

The test report released by the Shenzhen Municipal Consumer Commission pointed out that SCCPs are biologically toxic and accumulative, and SCCPs that have been present in the environment for a long time will accumulate in animals and humans, affecting the immune system and reproductive system of humans and organisms, and causing environmental pollution.

Zhu Yi, an associate professor at China Agricultural University, pointed out that SCCPs attached to school bags will slowly volatilize at room temperature, but they are difficult to degrade, and long-distance migration will occur in the atmospheric environment.

Multiple factors have led to the influx of "poisonous school bags" into the market

At present, school bags containing plastic account for a considerable proportion of the market. The reporter saw on a large e-commerce sales platform that the vast majority of school bags with sales volume in the top 50 contain plastic materials. Industry experts pointed out that the regulatory authorities should formulate relevant safety standards in a timely manner to prevent SCCPs from exceeding the standard in daily consumer goods such as plastic school bags.

At present, some developed countries have strictly restricted the import and use of consumer goods containing SCCPs, and the relevant EU regulations limit the content of SCCPs in consumer goods to no more than 0.15%, but China has not made clear requirements for the SCCPs in school bags, book covers and other student supplies.

At present, China's production and testing standards for school bags mainly include "General Requirements for the Safety of Student Supplies (GB 21027-2007)", "Student Bag (QB/T 2858-2007)", "Health Requirements for School Bags for Primary and Secondary School Students". The reporter consulted the three documents and found that the documents stipulate that the chemical substance detection indicators for the school bag mainly include: free formaldehyde, decomposable harmful aromatic amine dyes, maximum limit of migratable elements, etc., but there is no relevant provision on the limit value of SCCPs.

The reporter checked the sampling announcement of the market supervision departments of most provinces in the country in recent years to sample school bags and other stationery supplies, and found that none of them used SCCPs as a testing item for the quality sampling of school bags.

The relevant person in charge of the market supervision and administration bureau of a southern province said that there is no SCCPs in the testing standards, which directly leads to the market supervision department not testing the SCCPs in the annual sampling process of the quality of children's products and student stationery supplies.

An important reason for the widespread use of chlorinated paraffin waxes is the low cost. Liu Mou, head of a chlorinated paraffin wax production enterprise in Dongying City, Shandong Province, said that compared with similar plasticizers, the price of chlorinated paraffin wax is nearly 50%, other plasticizers are more than 10,000 yuan per ton, and chlorinated paraffin waxes only need five or six thousand yuan per ton, and its plasticizing effect is better than similar products, and the cost performance is very high.

The reporter's investigation found that the vast majority of small and medium-sized school bag manufacturers have not heard of the substance SCCPs.

Shao Mou, the person in charge of a school bag production enterprise in Wenling City, Zhejiang Province, said that the raw materials needed were purchased from the market, not produced by themselves, and plasticizers were not needed in the process of processing into school bags. "I don't know what a SCCP is, and I won't specifically test whether the raw material contains SCCPs."

Speed up the revision of school bag standards to plug the loopholes in product sampling

It is understood that the current domestic production of chlorinated paraffins is a mixture of short chain, medium chain and long chain. Industry insiders pointed out that China, as a major producer of chlorinated paraffin waxes, should accelerate technological innovation, minimize the content and proportion of short chains and medium chains in chlorinated paraffin products, and improve the quality of chlorinated paraffin waxes.

Feng Anhong and other experts suggested that the relevant departments should include SCCPs in supervision, establish detection methods for SCCPs in consumer goods such as school bags, improve the relevant standard system, and provide technical support for the supervision of SCCPs in consumer goods.

Shao Mou, the person in charge of the schoolbag production enterprise, said that in the short term, it is necessary to improve the production process of the schoolbag raw material industry as soon as possible. At present, the SCCPs in most school bag products mainly come from the direct addition of school bag raw material manufacturers in the production process. Therefore, in order to reduce the content of SCCPs in school bags, it is necessary to strictly limit the addition and use of chlorinated paraffins from the source, and find and develop environmentally friendly and non-toxic alternatives as soon as possible.

Li Lielie, a staff member of SGS China Light Industry Products Laboratory, said that in the long run, chemical companies should be encouraged and guided to optimize the process flow, reduce the short-chain chlorinated paraffin contained in upstream chlorinated paraffin products, and try to eliminate the risk of exceeding the standard of the substance in the terminal product from the source. At the same time, it is also necessary to encourage the chemical and material industries to strengthen research and development and innovation, develop polymer processing aids with better prices and stronger functions, and accelerate the replacement of chlorinated paraffins. (Reporters Ou Dianqiu, Yang Xin, Zhou Xuanni, Liu Zhiqiang) (End)