BRUSSELS – The European Commission has issued a new draft regulation proposing restrictions on the use of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) – a surfactant still widely used in the textile industry. NPEs are important to the textile industry because of their excellent detergent properties, making them suitable for a wide variety of applications such as scouring, coating or waterproofing agents, in printing pastes and adhesives, and in textile dyeing. However, this surfactant, when found in clothes, can be discharged into the aquatic environment after washing and may react to form the potentially hazardous and hormone-disrupting chemical nonylphenol.
