Name: Penelope

Country or region: Colorado, USA

Message: Hi,
I've used fiber reactive dyes intermittently for many years.  Lately, I've begun to worry that the pigment might contain heavy metals.  I've looked at the section showing molecular structures and formulae, and see that for the most part, they are complex configurations of common elements, many of them the building blocks of life C H O P K I N S Ca Fe Mg Na Cl........ Is there any way to confirm my conclusion that there are no heavy metals in at least the Procion MX series of dyes?

Heavy metals are specified in MSDS (Material Data Safety Sheet) information for any type of dye. MSDS pages may be requested from any dye supplier, and are often available online; while the MSDS cannot specify the exact dye contents of any pre-mixed dye color, since the recipes used to mix the colors are trade secrets, you can obtain an MSDS for each of the individual unmixed Procion MX dyes used in the mixtures.

Procion MX dyes do not contain any heavy metals, except for the copper ions contained in Procion Turquoise MX-G (Colour Index reactive blue 140) and Procion Rubine MX-B (Colour Index reactive red 6), which only contain between 1% and 5% copper by weight. (Procion Turquoise MX-G contains 60 to 65% copper phthalocyanine, a large molecular structure of which only a small portion is the copper ion itself.) While it is not safe to drink Procion MX dyes, or any other textile dye other than food coloring, there is no danger of heavy metal poisoning from any appropriate use of Procion MX dyes. In fact, the only real danger of heavy metal poisoning from any hand dyeing of textiles occurs from the use of certain heavy metal mordants that are sometimes used with natural dyes or in industrial dyeing of wool. I recommend against any use of the mordant potassium dichromate, for this and other reasons.

Heavy metals are not the only health concern involving dyes. Some dyes that are based on the chemicals benzidine, o-dianisidine, or toluidine are carcinogenic, and can be quite hazardous for workers who use them carelessly. Fortunately, none of these dangerous chemicals are used in manufacturing any of the Procion MX dyes, or in fact any other fiber reactive dye. They have been used in manufacturing a large number of direct dyes, and some acid dyes; these dyes are listed by their generic Colour Index names in Monona Rossol's book, The Artist's Complete Health and Safety Guide: Third Edition. Many of these benzidine-, o-dianisidine-, or toluidine-based direct dyes were included in all-purpose dyes up through the 1970s, but they are now much harder to find in consumer products in the US. However, since none of the fiber reactive dyes are manufactured using benzidine, o-dianisidine, or toluidine, this is not a concern for users of Procion MX dyes.

See also the following:

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