Brussels, 05/06/2012 (Agence Europe) -Euro 2012 football shirts have been given the red card. And quite rightly, too, as they all contain substances that are harmful and toxic for health and for the environment, findings by the European consumer organisation, BEUC, reveal. Test results were published on Tuesday 5 June, just three days before the European football championship kicks off.
“Football fans pay up to €90 for the shirt of their favourite team. The least they should expect is to have a quality and safe product. It is inexplicable that heavy metals are used in mass consumer products. It is clearly foul play by manufacturers to use substances harmful to both people and the environment”, said Monique Goyens, BEUC Director General, expressing indignation.
Nine official Euro 2012 shirts (those of the Polish, Spanish, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian, French, Dutch and Portuguese teams) were tested by the BEUC member organisations. All contained worrying levels of chemical substances.
The presence of lead, a heavy metal, was detected in six of the shirts (those of Spain, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, France and Italy) and, in kits from Spain and Germany, lead exceeds recommended levels for children's products. Ronaldo, Van Persie and their team mates from Portugal and the Netherlands will be playing with kits containing nickel. BEUC takes the view that shirts from the host country, Poland, should be banned outright from shops as they contain an organotin compound (used to prevent sweat odour) in higher doses than the legal limit. Organotin can be toxic to the nervous system. Nonylphenol - which can disrupt the endocrine system and is banned from wastewater because of its harmful effect on the environment - was found in the shirts for Spain and Italy.
According to Monique Goyens, these test results are a “sad reminder that Europe's chemicals legislation is unfit for the purpose of banning dangerous substances from consumer products. The upcoming review of REACH, Europe's chemicals legislation, efforts to deal with 'chemical cocktail' effects and plans to deal with endocrine disrupting chemicals give the EU ample opportunity to be on the offensive against harmful chemicals”. (AN/transl.jl)