Extraction of chromium from dyed textiles by means of artificial skin surface film liquid

The growing interest about the possible interaction of the textile materials with the human skin lead to test analytical methods for toxicological and eco-toxicological quality determination of the textile manufactures. Actually the analysis of heavy metals is based on a method adopted by some private textile ecolabels, where the metals are extracted from the textiles materials by means of an artificial saline solution prepared according to the ISO 105 E-04 standard, which is specific for testing color fastness to perspiration. In this work we have tested an alternative method to extract chromium from textile materials, using an artificial skin surface film liquid which should better mimic the human sweat. The results were compared to those obtained using the ISO standard solution. Moreover, the metal extraction yield was derived by the determination of total chromium in the ashes.