A LOCAL waste and pollution watchdog on Thursday warned consumers that ordinary leather shoes they buy may be tainted with harmful substances that can adversely affect their health, as well as the environment.
EcoWaste Coalition president Manny Calonzo said ordinary leather-shoe samples from the Philippines and five other countries contain various environmental toxicants.
To complicate matters, chemical additives recently added by law to industrial rugby, in order to make rugby smell so bad it would no longer be used by young addicts who usually sniff it from plastic bags, are now being complained of by shoemakers—both owing to their toxicity, and to the fact that they make local shoes stink so much that sales are dipping.
The group urged the government to enact a law effectively prohibiting hazardous chemicals in consumer products; promote globally binding agreements for the phaseout of hazardous chemicals from the materials flow in human society; classify chromium-containing waste as potentially hazardous; and improve the management of hazardous waste.
EcoWaste also said industry players should disclose information from the supplier or upstream manufacturer on the materials and contents of hazardous chemicals in the shoes sold in the market.
Calonzo said in addition, industry players should phase out substances that are harmful to human health and the environment, and increase the use of chromium-free leather in shoe production; and support development of alternatives to chromium tanning; produce and sell shoes of high quality and long durability; and eco-label shoe products.
Consumers, Calonzo said, are unaware of the harmful substances contained in the products they buy, such as shoes, thus ignoring the more serious health and environmental effect in disposing them.
Meanwhile, the EcoWaste Coalition urged concerned government agencies to address the concern raised by local shoemakers in Marikina City, who have been complaining of the stink from toluene-based contact cement (TBCC), or rugby, that is now being sold with a new legally mandated additive in the market.
Calonzo said they have learned about the complaints by shoemakers in Marikina City and are “equally concerned” of the new substance’s potential impact to consumer health and environment, especially that the shoemakers themselves have complained of its obnoxious smell.
The content of rugby, widely used by drug users that include street children, have been “adjusted” based on the recommendation of concerned government agencies, including the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB). The “rugby” now being sold and used by shoemakers contains more than 5-percent mustard oil, an additive that makes the adhesive unattractive to sniffing addicts because of the obnoxious smell.
However, industry workers complain that because of the new mandate by antidrug agencies, the production of quality shoes slowed down. They also fear that the new rugby content is even more dangerous to health.
EcoWaste, which earlier issued a statement welcoming PDEA’s move to ban over-the-counter sale of such addictive “rugby,” urged the shoe industry, PDEA and the Department of Health to set up a technical working group to identify and evaluate the ecological and economically viable substitutes to TBCC that will take into account the issues raised by shoemakers.
‘Bad shoes stink’
EcoWaste, which has been promoting consumer safety from toxic chemicals, revealed in its report entitled “Bad Shoes Stink” published by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) that 21 pairs of shoes tested positive for certain hazardous chemical content. Eleven of the shoes were purchased in Sweden, and two pairs each from South Africa, Uganda, Belarus, India and the Philippines.
EcoWaste and SSNC, Sweden’s biggest and oldest environmental organization at 100 years old, conducted the random shoes testing as part of a campaign to enhance consumer protection from toxic substances.
According to Calonzo, the EcoWaste Coalition bought two pairs of branded leather shoes from a mall in Manila and sent them to SSNC via DHL for analyses that were performed at Swedish laboratories Swerea IVF and Eurofins.
Among the chemicals that were analyzed include metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc), carcinogenic aromatic amines from azo dyes, chlorinated phenols, ortho-phenylphenol, 2,4,6-tribromophenol, dimethylfumarate, formaldehyde and chlorinated paraffins.
Seven of these chemicals—arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, pentachlorophenol and formaldehyde—are included in the priority chemicals list of the Philippines. These are chemicals the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has ascertained as potentially posing unwarranted risks to public health, workplace and the environment.
“The scientific investigation by SSNC found a cocktail of chemicals in the shoe samples bought in six countries that can put workers, consumers and the environment at risk during the entire life cycle of the shoes,” Calonzo said.
EcoWaste urged the authorities to put in place safety mechanisms to the effect of prohibiting the use of dangerous chemicals in consumer products, especially those that can cause carcinogenic, hormone-damaging and allergenic hazards, and promote safe substitutes.
The most serious finding of the study is that tons of trivalent chromium derived from the tanning of leather is spread into the environment every year when the shoes are eventually disposed of as waste. Chromium tanning accounts for some 80 to 85 percent of all tanning globally.
Upon incineration, open burning or landfilling of leather waste containing chromium, the most common and least toxic trivalent form of chromium may oxidize into the highly toxic and carcinogenic hexavalent form.
“The hexavalent chromium that has not been cleaned from the flue gases is spread into the environment. It can be breathed in, absorbed via the skin, pollute water courses and cause harm to humans and other organisms,” said Andreas Prevodnik, SSNC project manager for the leather-shoe study. Apart from trivalent chromium, the study also found azo dyes in two of the 21 pairs—from the Philippines and Sweden—that can degrade into carcinogenic aromatic amines or produce allergenic effects. The Philippine sample contained 68 mg/kg of benzidine, which is more than twice the acceptable limit of 30 mg/kg stipulated under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances of the European Union.
The azo dyes, which are leached out from the leather by perspiration, can be converted into carcinogenic aromatic amines and can be absorbed into the skin when the shoes are being worn.
The DENR has confirmed with the EcoWaste Coalition that the country has no regulation yet on azo dyes, and while chromium compounds are regulated, they are not banned. –Jonathan Mayuga / Correspondent, Businessmirror
#WearMask #WashHands
#Distancing
#TakePicturesVideos
