The safety and environmental impact of chemical products is regulated in Europe by the REACH regulations. The most important part of these regulations concerns the hazard symbols on product packaging. These hazard symbols are determined based on the chemical composition of products and are shown in the Safety Data Sheets of each individual product.
We have a Safety Data Sheet for each of our products. For Aybel Fabric Dye Black and Aybel Fiske the Safety Data Sheets are listed below the text. Therefore, no hazard symbols apply to this fabric dye and fixer. This means that the dye is non-toxic, but also non-corrosive and not harmful to the respiratory tract. For the other colors we will be happy to send you the Safety Data Sheets on request.
Discharge into surface water should generally be avoided with fabric dye. This can best be compared with regular table salt. Table salt as a product is also “not harmful to people and the environment”. The discharge of (larger) quantities of salt into the (fresh) surface water will lead to fish death.
Fabric dye mainly contains dyes. A larger amount of black dye in a small pond will affect the light transmission and thus disrupt the growth of plants and organisms. The product is therefore not harmful or poisonous in itself, but it will change the aquatic environment in higher concentrations, which can lead to fish death, for example.
In almost all of Western Europe, the water purification and sewage system primarily dilutes the waste water and purifies the water. With regard to our product, the dilution in the sewer is actually sufficient to no longer pose a significant burden (light transmission) on the environment.
Naturally, this applies to non-industrial use of our product. For industrial use, our own water purification system will have to be provided to avoid excessive concentrations of dyes in the sewer.