Commission Decision (EU) 2023/1809 of 14 September 2023 establishes EU Ecolabel criteria for absorbent hygiene products and for reusable menstrual cups, OJ L 234, 22 September 2023. The antimony figure is a voluntary label criterion for the final product. It is not a market ban.
Key numbers
Criterion 7.3.8 applies to impurities in the final product. It states that the listed chemicals shall not be present in the final product in a concentration higher than what is indicated in Table 9. The heavy-metals block of that table prints Antimony < 30 mg/kg (PDF p.26, OJ L 234/167). The same block prints cadmium < 0,1 mg/kg, chromium < 1 mg/kg, lead < 0,2 mg/kg, and mercury < 0,02 mg/kg. The commas in those other metals are the printed decimal marks. Antimony is printed as < 30, without a comma. Tests are on a representative final product, or separately on each material composing that product. Recommended methods named in the decision are NWSP 360.1R0 or equivalent for sample preparation, NWSP 360.2R0 or equivalent for analyte extraction, and NWSP 360.3R0 or equivalent for instrumental analysis, at least once a year. Article 4 states that the criteria remain valid until 31 December 2029.
The decision date on the OJ title is 14 September 2023. A secondary listing that says 12 September 2023 is not this text.
Methods (brief)
The basis is content in the final product, described as an impurity restriction, not a migration test. The label is voluntary. Baby diapers fall in the absorbent hygiene product group. Reusable menstrual cups are a second product group in the same decision.
Evidence fitness
The page supports the voluntary final-product restriction of antimony below 30 mg/kg, printed as < 30 mg/kg. It does not support treating that figure as a legal maximum for every diaper on the market. It does not support a U.S. federal diaper limit.
Limitations
Colorant impurity language elsewhere in the decision points to Council of Europe Resolution AP (89) 1. That sentence is not Table 9. The two are not the same limit.
Related evidence
Update history
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