Skin friendly leather

TFL Leather Technology Ltd have introduced a certified leather process which has been scientifically tested to produce leather that is kind to the consumers' skin. The process in question is their new WhiteLine wet-white for footwear upper or softy nappa leather. TFL have had their leathers tested and certified by the international testing institute TüV in Germany. The institute examined the non-mineral leathers for a range of toxicological and dermatological performance parameters to fit their SG label criteria. The SG label is TüV's own certificate for low polluting products such as leather that may contain low amounts of potentially harmful substances. Following scientific and medical evaluation, WhiteLine leathers were tolerated by all participants, including people with sensitive skin, without any visible negative reaction. Tests were also carried out on patients with skin complaints at a hospital in Darmstadt, Germany. None of people who took part in the trial suffered any adverse reaction to the WhiteLine leather. The leather also met the stringent limits and parameters for harmful substances as established in the SG catalogue. For example, WhiteLine contains less than 10mg/kg extractable soluble chromium III (not more than 10ppm) in the crust leather. TüV's own SG label criteria sets 50mg/kg as the limit. 'Tanners wishing to use the WhiteLine process can register their own leathers under the SG label using the TFL ID number. They can then market their leathers as being dermatologically and toxicologically tested under the TüV criteria by being a WhiteLine supplier', says Florian Döppert, head of application, shoe upper leather, TFL. 'We are not wishing to be anti-chrome at TFL but our new non-mineral wet-white leathers contain much lower levels of some potentially harmful substances.' WhiteLine has been given the certification TüV ID number 7311150561 and further details can be seen on [http://www.tuv.com]