Screening of leather auxiliaries for their role in toxic hexavalent chromium formation in leather-posing potential health hazards to the users

With increasing concern about the potential health hazards of toxic chemicals in consumer articles such as leather products, many countries importing these articles have introduced stringent stipulation for the permissible levels of such chemicals in these articles. Hexavalent chromium is one such toxic metal ion included in the list of regulated substances. The problem is unique to leather industry as it uses only trivalent chromium based salts in the tanning process but faces the problem of presence of Cr(VI) in the end product. Efforts are being made to understand the reasons for the presence of hexavalent chromium in leather and to devise strategies for eliminating the same in processing. This paper describes our attempt to investigate the role of potential post-tanning (wet finishing) and finishing auxiliaries used in leather processing in the conversion of Cr(III) to Cr(VI) in the chrome-tanned leather. The auxiliaries were also screened for the presence of oxidizing functionality and the amount estimated as persulfate. The study reveals that the auxiliaries suspected of having a role in Cr(VI) formation do have considerable quantities of residual oxidizing functionality capable of converting Cr(III) to Cr(VI). The study with persulfate as the model oxidizing agent confirms the role of oxidizing agents in the formation of quantities of Cr(VI) well above the permissible limit of 3 mg/kg in leather matrix, which basically provides a reducing environment.