Number of annual chemical risk alerts for textile products in the EU

In 2025, 72 chemical-related alerts for clothing, textiles and fashion items were reported to the EU Rapid Alert System, indicating risks for humans and the environment.

Textile articles put on the EU market need to comply with EU safety requirements for placing chemicals on the market. When a national enforcement authority identifies chemical risks in consumer products through product checks, it has to inform counterparts in other countries by notifying the EU Rapid Alert as part of the EU internal market of restricted chemicals.

From 2020 to 2025, an average of 59 alerts per year were reported regarding restricted chemicals in textiles, indicating risks for humans and the environment. The number of alerts per year for these products ranges from 40 to 75, with no clear trend.

In 2025, 72 chemical risk alerts were reported for textiles. A small number of Member States accounted for nearly all reported cases, with Sweden, Germany, Finland, Romania, and Italy together responsible for 73% of the total alerts. The majority of risks (72%) were related to human health. All of the human health risks were found to be non-compliant with the REACH Regulation. In some cases, this involved exceedances of the permitted limits for chromium (VI), which can trigger allergic reactions, and elevated concentrations of cadmium, a substance that can accumulate in the body and cause organ damage and cancer. In 2023, amongst all consumer goods reported in the EU Rapid Alert System, clothing, textile and fashion items are the product category with the fifth most frequently alerted products due to human health . Regarding environmental risks, most alerts are related to products that do not comply with the EU regulation on persistent organic pollutants (POPs Regulation), posing a risk to human health and the environment.

Chemical risks in textiles pose a challenge to textile circularity since there is a lack of traceability at the after-use stage. Problematic chemicals – either used before being classified as harmful or not detected when entering the market, can potentially hinder efforts to increase material reuse and recycling. For example, the presence of PFAS in textiles has been identified as a barrier to longer use, reuse and recyclability of textiles, since this might amplify the risk of exposure by extending the duration of PFAS in . Thus, by increasing the circularity of textiles, the potential environmental and health hazards related to harmful chemicals are prolonged.

The use of hazardous chemicals in textile products on the EU market, including substances identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction, presents significant concerns. To address these risks, the European Commission is taking action through the REACH regulation. Additionally, as outlined in the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, the Commission is developing criteria for safe and sustainable chemicals and materials. Furthermore, the strategy includes the ambition to phase out all non-essential uses of PFAS, which would also concern textile products. More generally, the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles wants to support the textile industry replace harmful substances wherever possible and minimize their presence in textiles entering the EU market.

At the national level, some countries are considering or have already posed bans on certain products containing per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including textile products. For example, France has adopted legislation banning PFAS in certain consumer textiles from 2026, with the restriction extended to all textiles by 2030. Second-hand clothing is exempt to maintain consistency with circular economy . Additionally, a proposal by five EU Member States (Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden) for the restriction of PFAS – including in textile products - has progressed at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Both scientific committees support an EU-wide restriction to address the growing and long-lasting risks of PFAS, subject to appropriate derogations and .

Definition

EU Safety Gate alerts for chemicals for clothing, textile and fashion items, 2020 – 2025. This includes all alerts related to chemicals considered harmful to the environment and/or human health.

Methodology

Alerts for clothing, textile and fashion items are reported to the EU Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products established under the General Product Safety Directive (replaced by Regulation 2023/988 in . The data is publicly available on the EU Safety .

This indicator includes all chemical-related risks reported, distinguishing between those affecting human health, the environment, and both. However, these distinctions may overlap, as some risks classified as environmental may also impact human health.

Data analysis: reliability and availability

The number of alerts is influenced by EU and national initiatives for market surveillance of specific products or substances, since inspection campaigns often only target a small fraction of products on the market. Moreover, most alerts are reported by a limited number of Member States; thus, the number of alerts may reflect the level of national enforcement ambition and prioritisation, rather than the actual prevalence of non-compliant products.

The REACH4Textiles project, for example, found 16% of tested products to be non-compliant with the REACH regulation, indicating that the problem goes way beyond what is currently . The project also found considerable differences between Member States in how REACH compliance in textiles is prioritised, including variations in substances targeted, product categories selected and the frequency of . For ultra-fast fashion, even higher levels of non-compliance have been identified: 18 out of 56 clothing and footwear items tested from the online marketplace SHEIN exceeded REACH safety thresholds, corresponding to 32% of the sampled .

Stepping up enforcement activities at the EU level would increase the detection of hazardous chemicals in products sold on the EU market and thus increase the number of alerts. More stringent legislation on chemicals may also lead to an increase in alerts.

Metadata

Data source: EU Safety Gate, web portal for the EU Rapid Alert System

Unit: alerts per year

Temporal coverage: 2020 – 2025

Geographic coverage: EU + Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway

Literature

EC (2022): EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles.
EC (2020): Chemicals strategy for sustainability.
EEA Briefing (2024): PFAS in textiles in Europe’s circular economy.
WSP (2024) An assessment on PFAS in textiles in Europe's circular economy | European Environment Agency's home page
REACH4Textiles Project (n.d.).

Number of annual chemical risk alerts for textile products in the EU

References and footnotes